


Jurisdictional Boundaries

by Geonn



Category: Law & Order: SVU, Stargate Atlantis, Stargate SG-1
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Case Fic, Crossover, Crossover Pairings, F/F, First Time, Porn With Plot, Romance, Strap-Ons, Zero-gravity sex
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-03-07
Updated: 2013-03-07
Packaged: 2017-12-04 14:15:53
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 6
Words: 56,267
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/711646
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Geonn/pseuds/Geonn
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>An unusual case leads the SVU team to join forces with a secret military unit called SG-1, led by an intriguing and beautiful woman who ignites feelings Olivia thought long dead. When fate conspires to bring them together again, Olivia must make some hard decisions about the path her life is taking.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Give and Take

**Author's Note:**

> The series takes off on a tangent starting around Season 8 of SVU, and just before Season 4 of Atlantis. I don't think anyone will miss the Olivia Benson from these later seasons, will they...? Good. Thought not.
> 
>   
>  [ made by GreenOvalFruit](http://img.photobucket.com/albums/0903/Geonn/SamOlivia.jpg)   
> 

The entry team waited next to the door, the chipped green paint of the walls flaking off onto their bulletproof vests. Olivia Benson and Elliot Stabler, guns at the ready, moved up to the front of the line and stood on either side of the door. Olivia pressed against the knob-side of the doorframe and rapped her free hand against the wood. "Hey, Mikey, you in there, man?"

"Whozat?" a man called from inside.

"Come on, man, I heard you had the really good stuff. Come on, hook a girl up."

The door opened an inch and Stabler kicked it the rest of the way in. The wood hit the young white kid in the face as it swung back. The team swarmed in around Olivia and quickly secured the kid in the wife-beater. Olivia kept her gun up and ready as she entered the apartment. She swept the kitchen, called "Clear!" to the team and continued into the back hallway.

She pushed open each door she passed until she reached the bedroom. A blonde girl, ghostly pale and dressed in a thin white gown. She was on the edge of the bed, leaning forward as if curious about the noise but afraid to get up and investigate. She smiled beatifically when she saw Olivia, apparently oblivious to the gun and vest. 

"Meghan Lee?" Olivia asked.

"Yes," the girl said. Her voice was bubbly, like she was holding back laughter. Her blue eyes sparkled and she inched forward on the bed. "Did he bring you for me?"

"What?" Olivia asked. "Who? Michael?"

The girl's face glowed. "Yes! My master, Michael."

Olivia felt like throwing up. She held out her hand. "Come with me, Meghan. We're going to get you out of here."

The smile finally wavered. "But... where would I want to go?"

"Home. To your parents." 

The girl stood and tried to slip through the door past Olivia. The detective was too quick, and snaked an arm around her midsection. The girl kicked and shouted and howled for Michael. "Master! Tell them I don't want to go! Master, please!" She saw down the hallway, where Elliot had Michael Crane handcuffed and pressed against the wall. "Don't hurt him! You're hurting him!"

Olivia held the girl where she was and looked over her shoulder. She met Elliot's eyes and saw that he was just as confused as she was. Olivia restrained Meghan while Elliot and the other cops got Michael out of the apartment. 

#

"Where is Meghan now?" Cragen asked.

"Downstairs in holding," Olivia said. "We had to lock her up so she wouldn't tear down the walls to get to Michael Crane."

Cragen looked at the photo of the girl on the white board. "What is this? Stockholm syndrome?"

"She was missing for one day," Olivia said. "I've never seen it take hold that fast, and certainly it wouldn't be this strong."

Fin said, "Date-rape drug."

"Rohypnol just makes people suggestible," Munch said. "There's a difference between a zombie and a devoted acolyte."

Cragen held his hands out. "Okay, what are the other options? We saw the tape. She did not go with him willingly."

Stabler walked in with the lab report held up in one hand. "It wasn't Rohypnol or GHB, but there was a drug involved. We found bottles of the stuff in the kid's bathroom, and the lab found traces in Meghan's system. The lab said it's nothing they've ever seen before. We're waiting on the results of the second, in-depth analysis to find out just what this crap is made of."

"Great. A brand-new designer drug targeting women on the streets," Munch said. "We can't cure cancer, but when it comes to rapists building better mousetraps, we're number one in the world."

"Keep me informed," Cragen said. He looked one last time at the white board before he went into his office.

#

According to the guard, Meghan had finally quieted down around midnight. Olivia went down first thing in the morning and found her sitting on the edge of her cot. Her hands were clenched tightly together, her head bowed and her shoulders slumped. She looked utterly defeated. Olivia let the guard unlock the cell and stepped inside. She sat on the bed next to the girl. "Hi, Meghan," Olivia said gently. "I guess you're feeling better today."

The girl looked up with tears in her eyes. "What did I do wrong?"

"Nothing," Olivia said quickly. "No, honey, you didn't do anything wrong."

"Then let me _leave_ ," she pleaded. "I don't want to _be_ here. Where is Michael?"

"Michael... is under arrest, Meghan. Do you remember what happened on Monday night?"

She nodded. "I was at the bar with some friends. I was bored, and then Michael showed up." Her eyes brightened and she smiled again. "We danced. He took me home and we made love. We made love all day and night. And then you came in and took him from me."

The girl was still smiling, but Olivia could see the truth behind her eyes. They hadn't 'made love,' no matter what Meghan said or might believe at the moment. Her eyes gave her away. Olivia said, "Meghan, Michael is locked up. He can't hurt you anymore."

"He would never hurt me!"

"He took you away from your friends. They said that he forced you to dance with him and practically dragged you from the bar."

"It's not true," Meghan said.

"What about that scratch on his face?" Olivia said. "You gave that to him when he tried to put you in his car." She was shaking her head. "We have it on surveillance tape, Meghan."

"You're lying. You're a liar." Realization dawned in her eyes. "You want him for yourself!"

Olivia caught the girl's hands before she could scratch her face. "Meghan! Meghan, stop!"

She was holding tight to both of Meghan's wrists. The girl was surprisingly strong. Meghan shoved her face forward and nearly spit in Olivia's face when she growled, "I'll kill you before I let you have him! He's mine, bitch!"

The guards rushed in and pulled Meghan away. Olivia retreated and waited for the guard to lock the cell again. He looked at Meghan and turned to Olivia. "Are you sure this girl was the _victim_?"

Olivia watched Meghan drop back onto the cot, sobbing quietly. 

"I'm really not," Olivia said quietly.

#

On the small security camera screen, Olivia watched the entire ordeal again. Michael Crane dragged Meghan from the bar, his hand clenched around her wrist like a vice. Meghan was fighting him the entire way. At the upper left of the screen, Olivia could just barely make out Meghan's friends come out of the bar. She knew from taking their statements that they had wanted to do something to help, but Michael was a big guy. They made the right decision to stay back.

Michael twisted Meghan around and tried to cram her into his car. She brought her free hand up and swept it down his cheek. Michael jerked back and then clapped his hand across her face. Olivia winced in sympathy and watched as Meghan was finally shoved into the car. Michael climbed in after her, slammed the door and peeled away. 

"Anything new?" Elliot asked from behind her.

"Nothing."

"Huang just got finished talking with her. He says if it's Stockholm, it's the strongest case he's ever seen."

Olivia shook her head. "Something happened to this girl. I tried to get her to watch the security footage for herself, but she refuses. She just turns away. Short of propping her eyes open with toothpicks..."

"It may not be our problem anymore."

Olivia turned. "We got the results of the drug analysis?"

"No," Elliot said.

"What's taking it so long?"

"Roadblock. There were results, but the computer didn't send them to us."

"Who did they send them to?"

"The United States Air Force colonel who is waiting to see us."

#

Olivia led the way into the bullpen. A blonde woman in dress blues stood with her back to the door, reading the white board with their case information. She had a dark blue duffel bag slung over her shoulder. "Who the hell are you?" Olivia asked. She hated the fact this stranger was reading their board. Who knew if she was really an Air Force officer or not? The woman turned and offered a weak, almost embarrassed smile. "Hi. I'm Colonel Samantha Carter. Detectives Benson and Stabler?"

"That's us," Elliot said. "Hopefully you're here to tell us what that junk is so we can wrap this case up."

"I'm afraid it's not as easy as that. You see, the substance you tested shouldn't exist."

Olivia glanced instinctively at Munch's desk. Thank God he wasn't here for this.

"Secret government experiments?" Elliot said.

Olivia rolled her eyes.

"Something like that," Carter admitted. "I'm not at liberty to tell you much else, but it's not something that we created. It's called nish'ta. We stumbled across it--"

Elliot said, "Where? Nish'ta... sounds Russian."

"Classified," Carter said. "The chemical make-up is slightly different than the samples we knew about, but they were close enough that it was brought to our attention. Every sample known to exist of this drug was rounded up and destroyed seven years ago."

Elliot shrugged. "So someone made a new batch."

"Not possible."

"What did you do, kill the guy who made it?"

Carter stared at him and said, "Classified."

Once again, the eyes gave her away. Olivia knew that yes, Colonel Carter _had_ killed the creator. Maybe she had even pulled the trigger herself. But she wasn't fond of the memory.

Elliot dropped the conspiracy angle. "So how does it work?"

"We're still not entirely sure of the mechanics of it. Basically, it's a biological compound alters a person's brain chemistry and makes them highly suggestible. It's not contagious, and it is one-hundred percent curable. If I could have a few minutes alone with Miss Lee...?"

"The _cure_ is classified?" Olivia said. 

"I'm afraid so. It won't take long. Once I'm done, she will be completely returned to normal with no ill effects."

It grated on Olivia to grant this woman unrestricted, private access to their victim, but the promise of Meghan being cured was too great to pass up. She let the silence hang for a few seconds and watched Carter's face. There was hope there, a bit of guilt, but no malice. She was honestly trying to help, even if she was gagged by red tape. Carter returned the stare without blinking, without fear, until Olivia relented and ended the stand-off. "Okay," she said. She stood up and said, "I'll escort you down."

Carter visibly sagged with relief. "Thank you, Detective."

They walked out of the office together and walked the short corridor to the elevators. Olivia pressed the down button and watched the numbers scroll slowly up. Carter finally broke the silence. "I really am sorry I can't offer you more information, Detective Benson. But Samuel Johnson once said, 'to keep your secret is wisdom. To expect others to keep it is folly.'"

Olivia nodded. "He also said 'where secrecy or mystery begins, vice and roguery is not far off.' I'm afraid to ask why the military would be creating a drug like this."

"Like I said, the Air Force was not involved in its creation. It was discovered by us, and we did everything in our power to make sure it was eliminated."

Olivia looked sideways at the Colonel. There was something in her voice when she talked about the drug. Disgust, but also something else. Maybe a bit of shame. "You were a victim of it."

Carter's eyes got hard. She stared straight ahead. "Yes. I was forced to have sex against my will." She looked at Olivia and softened her voice as the elevator doors opened. "Believe me, Detective Benson. I know what Meghan Lee is going through, and I know how she will feel when the drug wears off."

Olivia led Carter through the anteroom to the guard's desk. "Colonel Carter would like to speak with Meghan Lee in private." To Carter, she said, "Be careful. She can be dangerous."

"I'll be careful," Carter promised.

The guard stood and walked down the short corridor. Carter followed with her duffel bag. The guard returned, and Carter didn't. Olivia crossed her arms and began to pace. She didn't even make one full circuit of the room before Carter called her name from the cell block. Sure that Meghan had attacked again, Olivia and the guard hurried to the cell door.

Carter was kneeling in front of the cot, holding both of Meghan's hands. Meghan was sprawled out on the cot as if she had been shot. "What did you do to her?" Olivia demanded as the guard opened the cell.

"She'll be all right," Carter promised.

Olivia knelt close to Meghan's head and glanced at Carter's duffle bag. A smooth, black object shaped like a snake's head protruded from the zipper. She ignored the odd tool and lightly touched Meghan's cheek. "Honey, can you hear me? Meghan?"

The girl's eyelids fluttered, but didn't open.

"She'll be fine," Carter assured Olivia again. "Sometimes it just takes people a while to wake up from... treatment... if they're not used to it."

Olivia was prepared to haul Carter to another cell, lock her up and throw away the key, when Meghan's eyes finally opened. She stared at Olivia, glanced at Carter, and breathed, "Where is he?"

Olivia's hopes plummeted. She decided to go for the hard-ass approach. "Michael Crane is upstairs," she said. "He's going to jail. You're never going to see him again."

Tears came to Meghan's eyes, as expected. But her next words were music to Olivia's ears. "Thank God. Thank you."

"Do you remember what happened?" Olivia asked.

"He raped me," Meghan whispered. "He raped me over and over again."

Olivia squeezed Meghan's hand and looked at Carter. The Colonel looked ill, but relieved. She met Olivia's eyes and nodded once.

Olivia hesitated, and then returned the nod. "Thank you, Colonel."

"Sam," Carter corrected.

"Sam. Thank you, Sam."

"It was my pleasure."

Olivia stood and helped Meghan to her feet. It had been two days since they had kicked down Michael Crane's apartment door. With luck, they could take Meghan's statement and have him formerly charged before they were forced to cut him loose.

#

"But _why_ would they name it twice? It's completely unnecessary and repetitive. It's a waste of time and energy, I say."

Cameron Mitchell had his elbow propped on the hotel desk, his chin in his hand and his fingers splayed across his cheek. "New York City... is the city. New York _State_ is the state. The city is in the state. Hence... New York, New York."

"Well, Cam-Cam," Vala said, "it doesn't make a lick of sense to me. Maybe when we get back to Stargate Command, Stargate Command, I'll--"

"Jackson..." Cam whined.

"Don't look at me," Daniel muttered from the bed. He was going over the list of Seth's followers that could have gotten samples of the nish'ta out of the compound before it exploded. It had been eight years, so the trails were completely ice-cold. Having Vala prattle on about some show tune wasn't helping. "You're the one who insisted on singing the song."

"And don't even get me _started_ on the city that never sleeps," Vala continued. "If the city truly never sleeps, then why do they have all these beds around? Hmm? Tell me _that_."

Cam pushed up from the desk and said, "I'm going to go call Carter and see if she's got anything."

Daniel looked up and watched him walk to the door. "Cell phone...?"

"There's gotta be a pay phone somewhere in New York," Cam said as he fled the room.

Vala flopped onto the bed and rolled onto her stomach. She rested her chin in her hands and shifted her questions to Daniel. "And why do we have to start spreading the news? Did you _see_ all the people out there? I think the news has been spread, thank you very--"

"Isn't there something else you could be doing?" Daniel asked. "I mean, it _is_ a hell of a town."

"What? That's not a lyric."

"'New York, New York, it's a hell of a town'?" Daniel said.

Vala shook her head.

"I'm not singing it," Daniel said as he went back to the list of cult members.

Vala pouted.

#

Meghan gave her statement to Detective Benson while Sam waited in the hallway outside. A glass-enclosed courtyard showed little more than a pair of skylights, but she could see the door of the detective's bullpen across the hall. She sipped lukewarm coffee and listened to Cam's progress report. "Well, just don't sing those songs around her," Sam said quietly. "Look, forget Vala. It was definitely nish'ta. The girl snapped out of it immediately after I hit her with the zat. What has Daniel found out about the former Seth cult members?"

"Most of them are in the wind. They vanished as soon as SG-1 broke up Seth's compound in Washington. The ATF tried to keep tabs on them for a while, on the assumption that someone who joins a cult once will join another." Sam chewed her bottom lip and nodded, despite the fact Cam couldn't see her. "So far, the kids we've been able to find have stayed on the straight and narrow. One made it to the Canary Islands and joined Heidi Fi... Fitt..."

"Heidi Fittkau-Garthe," Sam supplied.

"Right. Her cult. But none of them seem to have moved to New York."

The bullpen door swung open and Olivia looked around until she spotted Sam. "Keep looking, Cam. There has to be some connection. I'll call you back." She closed her phone and met Olivia halfway. "How is she?"

"She's doing much better, considering," Olivia said. "What did you inject her with?"

"Nothing," Sam said truthfully. 

"Look, Colonel," Olivia said, raising her voice slightly. "There could be more of this stuff out there on the street. We need to know how to reverse the effects."

"Believe me, Detective Benson. I understand what is at risk here. I can't imagine doing what you do every day. Seeing Meghan like that, and seeing hundreds of other women and girls every day... I couldn't do it. But you need our help with this one. Now, my team is working to find the supplier. It would go a lot faster if you would allow us to sit in when you interrogate Michael Crane."

Olivia looked immovable. Her arms were crossed over her chest and she looked toward the window. She looked like she was about to say no, so Sam tried a preemptive strike. "Give and take. If not for us, you would never have known nish'ta existed. Meghan Lee would still be under the influence of it and Michael Crane wouldn't be in custody right now. We need to have a mutually beneficial relationship on this case. I let you in as far as I could. Now I need you to give me the same consideration. Please, Olivia."

Olivia closed her eyes and relaxed slightly. "You can watch through the glass. Will that do?"

Sam hesitated. "We need information from Crane. I assume you're not willing to cut a deal with him?"

"No way in hell," Olivia said.

Sam said, "Then I'll need another member of my team observing."

#

Michael Crane wasn't a small man. Sam could see why Meghan's friends had been reluctant to confront him. He sat at a scuffed gray table under a barred window, his hands resting on his thighs. His dark hair was mussed and he had three days worth of stubble on his cheeks. He didn't look concerned. Probably because the nish'ta assured that Meghan wouldn't press charges. He figured he was about to be let go.

Sam watched as Olivia walked into the room and dropped a file down in front of him. "You have quite a way with the ladies, Michael," she said. She paced behind him and put her hands on the back of his chair. "Three accusations of rape in the past year. Busy boy."

"None of those charges stuck."

"I wonder why. You like to intimidate witnesses, Mikey?"

"It's Michael. And I always had permission."

"That's interesting." Olivia dropped an evidence bag from her jacket pocket. "That's what the label on your little pink bottle said. Permission. Cute name. Girl cries rape, you can claim you had 'permission.'" She made fists with her hands and leaned forward to glare into his dark eyes. "Meghan turned on you, you son of a bitch. You're going down for her, and for all the others."

Michael stared back at her. 

"Tell us where you get your supply."

He shifted in his chair. Bored, not nervous.

Olivia slapped the table with the flat of her hand. "Tell us where you get your supply!"

Michael looked at her and said, "I walk, I'll tell you everything I know."

"No deal," Olivia said.

The kid leaned back in his chair.

Olivia turned and looked through the glass. She nodded slightly and, a second later, the door opened. A big black man wearing a fancy charcoal suit slid into the room. His feet, clad in shiny Italian leather, moved silently across the tile floor. He wore a black fedora low over his brow. Olivia said, "Mr. Murray?"

He nodded once.

Olivia said, "Keep an eye on this man. Make sure he doesn't move an inch."

"As you wish."

Olivia left the room. She joined Sam on the outside of the glass and watched as "Murray" took a seat opposite Michael Crane. The large black man scooted his chair closer to the table and laid his fingers on the nicked surface. His fingers were splayed and his eyes were locked on the suspect seated across from him. Olivia watched for a moment and finally looked at Sam. "Has he asked for a lawyer?" Sam asked.

"He doesn't believe he needs one," Olivia said. "He's sure that he'll be let go because he thinks Meghan is still high on the drug. If he does ask for a lawyer and it gets out your friend here intimidated him..."

"Murray won't threaten him."

"Then how..."

"I'll talk!"

Olivia's eyes snapped back to the glass.

"Hey!" Michael said. "You wanna know where I get the shit, let's talk!"

Olivia glanced at Sam and went back into the room. Murray was already on his feet and passed her on his way out. "He did not move," he assured her with a slight grin. Then he was gone, the door shut behind him.

Olivia walked to the table. "There are no deals to be had."

"That's okay, that's fine," Michael said. He had grown considerably paler in the past thirty seconds. Olivia resisted the urge to look through the glass and took a seat. "Okay. Start talking."

#

Sam and Olivia returned to the bullpen to reveal the information Michael Crane had given out. "His supplier is Dale 'Rasputin' Kohl."

"Rasputin," Elliot said. "Russian."

"He operates out of a warehouse by the docks. We've already got uniforms on the way, but..." She gestured to Sam.

"There's an issue of national security."

"Oh, here we go," Munch sighed.

"My team will sweep the warehouse. We will hand over everyone we find, but we have to contain the samples of the drug we find. We know what to look for. And even more importantly, we're all immune to its effects. I'm sure you wouldn't want a SWAT team rushing the warehouse and immediately switching sides."

"It works that quickly?" Elliot said.

"It takes effect immediately. That's why we can't risk allowing you or your team to handle the take-down. I'm sorry. It's the best for everyone."

Olivia said, "Immunize _us_ , our team."

"The only way to become immune to nish'ta is to be exposed to it. After exposure, it's necessary to wait one hour before administering the cure or else it won't be effective. I assume you would rather not wait that long."

Cragen said, "I don't like this. But I like the idea of purposefully exposing my people to some revolutionary date-rape drug even less. We'll let you take this one, Colonel. A secondary team will be a block away ready to take the suppliers into custody once you've gotten the area under control. Keep us apprised."

"Yes, Captain."

Sam gathered her papers and left the bullpen. 

"Sam, wait."

She turned and saw Olivia hurrying after her. She stopped in front of the elevators and let the detective catch up with her. "I want in on the bust."

"I really don't think..."

"I fought that girl, Sam. She was willing to kill me to get back to the guy who had just spent most of the past twenty-four hours raping her. A drug that powerful? I need to be there and see it destroyed with my own eyes. Please. I don't need to have nightmares about other girls being taken like that."

Sam owed Olivia for letting her observe the interrogation, for keeping her in the loop. She appreciated Olivia for not mentioning the debt. "Okay. Give and take works both ways, I guess. And we'll need a representative of the police on the team to make sure everything goes smoothly."

"Thank you," Olivia said.

"I'll clear it with my team. But there's something we have to talk about first." The elevator arrived and they stepped into the car. Sam noticed Olivia's gun holstered on her belt. "First of all, you aren't going to need that."

#

Sam read Daniel's print-out on the ride to Kohl's warehouse. Dale Kohl, alias Rasputin, had moved from one cult to another in the late nineties. He joined up with Seth's a few months before the raid. As far as the SGC could tell, he was one of the few who had joined and remained willingly without the influence of nish'ta. When SG-1 raided the house, he had escaped with a handful of doses. Sam trembled to think what had happened to those original doses. Hopefully he had used it all trying to perfect a reverse-engineered version.

Sam passed the print-out to Olivia when she was done reading it. "The Seth cult was the first contact we had with the nish'ta. Kohl was a member."

Olivia read around the blacked-out blocks of words and gathered what information she needed. "Seth Fargough. Was he the creator?"

"As far as we know," Sam said. Olivia could tell she was holding something back.

"Was that where you were dosed?"

Sam glanced at Olivia and didn't reply, which was response enough. Olivia closed the folder as the Air Force team's rented SUV bounced over a speed bump. It stopped at the edge of a small warehouse with corrugated steel walls. The driver, Colonel Cameron Mitchell, stopped the engine and looked over his shoulder. "This is as far as we go. Your team in place, Detective?"

"They are," Olivia said. Elliot had contacted her a few minutes ago to let her know they were waiting. He hadn't sounded particularly thrilled.

A second SUV behind them carried fully-armored soldiers. As Olivia and the rest of Sam's team climbed from the truck, the soldiers unloaded like beetles falling out of a shell. They advanced with easy efficiency, all of them moving as one entity. Olivia pulled out her 'gun,' the odd, snake-shaped object she had seen in Sam's duffle bag in the cell. She and Sam had done target practice in the hotel's garage. The gun emitted a beam of electric blue light, similar to a taser. She figured it was another top-secret advancement. She had been forced to sign a non-disclosure agreement before they even showed it to her.

Sam had changed into civilian clothes, jeans and a low-cut yellow blouse under a leather jacket. Olivia couldn't help but admire the way she filled out the jeans. She was staring at the seam that followed the curve of Sam's ass as the Colonel leaned against the front bumper of the truck. She pulled on a Kevlar vest and said, "Cam, Olivia... masks."

Cameron and Olivia put their oxygen masks over their mouths. Olivia hadn't mentioned Sam's lie about her entire team being immune when she revealed the other Colonel would also be taking preventative measures. Sam, Murray, Jackson and the Maldorn woman weren't taking any precautions, but the entire entry team and Colonel Mitchell were all wearing masks to prevent accidentally inhaling samples of the drug. She decided it was better than an entire phalanx of cops wearing masks, but she knew Sam's excuse had been exactly that; she hadn't wanted the cops anywhere near this warehouse until they had a chance to get control of the scene.

They moved cautiously toward Rasputin's warehouse. Sam took point, along with Murray, and set a charge against the door. She checked to make sure the rest of the team was in place, gave a thumbs-up to Mitchell and blew the explosive on the door.

The heavily-armored men rushed in first, followed by Olivia, Maldorn and Murray. Kids who couldn't have been more than twenty were all grabbing for their weapons as the warehouse was stormed. The Air Force's taser guns erupted in multiple beams of light. _"One shot per person,"_ Sam had told her. Olivia didn't know why two shots would make a difference, but she wasn't going to question apparently experimental weaponry.

A guard with a 9mm swept around the corner, his back to her as he took aim at Murray, and Olivia fired. He jerked with the force of the blast and dropped to his knees. Olivia rushed past him and glanced down. Out cold. The thing was powerful, it had that going for it... 

She spotted Carter across the room, ducking into an office and sweeping it with her own taser. Olivia pressed against the wall and scanned for more bad guys. Everyone she saw, however, was either a member of Carter's team, wearing black body armor or lying unconscious on the floor. Ten seconds and it was over.

Olivia walked across to the office where Carter had disappeared. Dale Kohl, Rasputin, was slumped in a leather chair behind the desk. Sam was standing next to him and idly searching through his papers. She glanced up as Olivia took off her oxygen mask. "Found the timeline of his experiments. Looks like he's spent the entire seven years since the cult's downfall trying to duplicate the nish'ta. He finally got it perfect."

"Where did he spend those years?"

"Seth's cult was in Washington State. We'll have to dig deeper to find out how and when Kohl made the move to New York."

"And if he left a bunch of drugged girls in his wake."

Sam nodded. 

The taser fit awkwardly in her holster, so she set it on the desk as she pulled out her handcuffs. She secured Kohl's hands and looked down at the desktop. "Shipping orders?" she said.

"I haven't found any. It looks like he hadn't gotten any sent out yet," Sam said. She scooted a paper over so Olivia could read it. "I found Michael Crane's name on a work order. He was a grunt here. He brought the boxes of ingredients in, kept the place tidy. When Kohl thought he had a workable prototype, he sent Crane out to road-test it."

Olivia relaxed slightly, but kept her eyes on the unconscious Kohl. He was taking longer to come around than Meghan had. Sam caught the look and said, "I punched him."

"What?"

"I shot him, he went down, started to get back up. So I knocked his head into the desk. He's out for a while."

Olivia said, "You could have just shot him again."

"I wanted to," Sam said seriously. "Slamming his head into the desk felt better."

Olivia nodded and looked back at the desktop. "So now all we have to do is compare the amount of ingredients he's ordered, the amount Michael Crane has, and we'll know if anyone besides Meghan Lee was exposed."

"I think we're in the clear."

Olivia nodded and said, "Thank you for letting me be a part of the raid."

"We made a good team, Detective Benson," Sam said with a smile.

Olivia offered a smile of her own. "You're welcome, Colonel. I'll call my people and have them sweep up this mess. I assume your team will confiscate the nish'ta?"

"I'm sure they're already doing it."

They walked out of the office and, sure enough, Olivia saw Mitchell and Murray loading cardboard boxes into the back of one of the SUVs. Olivia called the waiting team of police officers and told them to move in. She also told them to bring two buses, enough to carry the unconscious floor workers and Kohl, and turned to Sam. "So I guess you're headed back to..."

"Colorado Springs," Sam said. "Cheyenne Mountain."

"NORAD?" Olivia said. That didn't make any sense. What interest did NORAD have in a cult or a designer drug? "Well, I suppose this is good-bye."

"Well," Sam said, aiming for casual as she walked Olivia out of the warehouse. "I don't go on very many raids like this. I suppose a celebratory dinner is out of the question?"

Olivia hesitated. She looked out at Sam's team, loading boxes into the truck, and said, "No. If you have the time, I would love to take you out for a celebratory dinner."

Sam smiled. "Actually, I was thinking about taking _you_ out."

"I know." Olivia gave her a crooked smile and pulled a business card from her jacket pocket. "Call me at that number, tonight at seven. Is that too early for you, Colorado-time?"

"No, it'll be fine," Sam said. She stuck the card into her own pocket as she watched Olivia walk away to wait for her people. 

#

That night, Olivia opened her apartment door to find Colonel Carter waiting with a bottle of wine. Sam had called a half hour ago to get Olivia's address and directions. She had dressed casually again, this time in dark slacks and a white blouse. She smiled and offered up the bottle. "I wasn't sure flowers were appropriate, so..."

"It's fine," Olivia said. She had been as unsure as Sam as to the nature of their get-together. They had planned a celebratory dinner, but Olivia found it easier not to make assumptions. Sometimes a dinner was just a dinner. Especially with a military officer. So she had stayed casually dressy in nice black jeans and a black blouse. She stepped back and took the wine as Sam entered the apartment.

"How is Kohl's case shaping up?" Sam asked. She subtly took in the layout of the apartment as she shed her coat. 

"Very well," Olivia said. "Casey - Casey Novak, that's the ADA - says that all of Rasputin's lackeys are falling all over themselves to flip on him."

Sam walked toward the living room window. "They were probably all under the influence of the nish'ta," Sam said. "Once the effects were reversed, they realized he had been using them the entire time. He probably didn't even pay them; they were willing to work for free while under his control."

Olivia joined Sam at the window. "It would be nice to have a couple of those tasers your team used. Shoot first and ask questions later, no harm done."

"Sorry. They're still years away from making them public."

"Something to do with that 'never shoot anyone twice' rule?"

Sam nodded. "Something, yeah."

"Do you ever give a straight answer, Colonel?"

"Straight isn't exactly my thing," Sam said. She looked down at the wine in Olivia's hand. "So. A drink before we go?"

"Why don't we just stay in?" Olivia said. "I can order from that Chinese place down the street..."

Sam looked at her and took a moment to decide what she was saying. She looked out at the street and said, "Are you really all that hungry?"

Olivia arched an eyebrow.

Sam closed the distance between them with one step and put her hand on Olivia's cheek. Olivia kept her eyes open and locked on Sam's as she turned into the caress. She opened her mouth and felt Sam's thumb brush her bottom lip. Sam moved her hand back, into Olivia's hair, and used pressure from her fingers to tilt Olivia's head back. Sam stepped closer and walked Olivia backwards to the wall.

Olivia stopped only when her shoulders made contact with the wall. Sam leaned in and touched her lips to Olivia's. Her tongue slipped out and she used the tip to part Olivia's lips. Olivia finally closed her eyes and moved her hands to Sam's hips. She untucked Sam's shirt and pulled it up, flattening her palms against the smooth, warm skin in the small of her back. She pulled Sam close and moaned into her mouth. 

Sam pulled back and gasped. Her eyes were half-lidded, her lips parted as she looked at Olivia. "I didn't completely read that wrong, did I?" Sam asked.

"No," Olivia assured her. She slipped her hands down to Sam's ass and squeezed through her slacks. She was wearing underwear and Olivia was slightly disappointed. Just a little more work to do later... "You read it just right."

Sam moved her hand from Olivia's neck to her chest. She ran her fingers down slowly, tracing the curve of her chest in search of her bra. When she reached the bud of Olivia's nipple, already hard against her shirt, Sam smiled. "Were you planning this, Detective Benson?"

"Planning is overstating it," Olivia said. "Hopeful, maybe..."

"What gave me away?" Sam moved her hand to the buttons of Olivia's blouse. She started undoing them with excruciating slowness.

"In the bullpen," Olivia said. The back of Sam's fingers kept brushing her chest; the touches were electric. "When we were meeting with Cragen. You were still in your dress uniform. You sat down and your skirt rode up on your thigh."

Sam frowned. "That told you I was gay?"

"That was what made me pray you might be," Olivia said with an evil grin.

Sam returned the grin and parted Olivia's shirt. It was only half undone, but it was enough to reveal one breast. Sam broke eye contact and looked down. Olivia rested her head against the wall as Sam's fingers moved toward her nipple. "You didn't even like me then. Right? But you wanted to fuck me?"

Olivia shuddered and managed to grin. "I've fucked plenty of people I didn't like."

Sam moved closer, her lips hovering next to Olivia's neck. "But now...?"

Olivia brought her hands up, slipped them under the waistband of Sam's pants and shoved them inside. She dug her fingers into the tight flesh of Sam's ass and pulled her forward. Sam laughed and kissed Olivia's neck. She slid her tongue along the dark skin, paused and sucked on her pulse point as her fingers plucked and squeezed Olivia's nipple. 

Olivia arched her back against the wall and pushed Sam away with her shoulders. Sam abandoned Olivia's neck and leaned back. "Are you single?" Olivia asked.

"Yes, of course," Sam said. She frowned. "Are... are you?"

"Yes," Olivia said. "There was someone. I lost her."

Sam slid her hand from Olivia's breast. It seemed an inappropriate position for this conversation. She cupped Olivia's shoulder instead. "What happened?"

"She went into witness protection. For about two years. When she came back, um..." She pressed her lips together and shook her head. She looked up and stared at Sam for a moment. "She was blonde. Like you. But completely different."

Sam looked at Olivia and said, "You remind me of someone, too."

"Is she...?"

"She died. A while back." Sam looked down at Olivia's bare breast.

"We don't have to talk about them," Olivia said. She kissed Sam's lips and said, "Tonight is just about us. Okay? No past lovers. No promises of the future. It's just you and me right now."

"Just you and me," Sam assured her. She bent down and captured Olivia's lips in another kiss. Olivia moved her hands from Sam's ass and freed them from the warm confines of her clothes. She pushed Sam back and walked her toward the couch.

"Sit," Olivia said.

Sam dropped onto the couch. Olivia towered over her for a moment, a silhouette backlit by the city outside the window. Olivia was breathing hard, her shirt hanging open as she stared down at Sam. She said, "Wait here." Sam craned her neck to watch Olivia hurry down a short hallway. As she ran, she pulled off her blouse and left it where it fell on the hallway floor.

Once she was alone, Sam began to undress. She kicked off her shoes and yanked her socks off. She frantically undid the buttons of her blouse and left it hanging open as she went to work on the fly of her pants. Her pants were bunched around her knees when Olivia came back. Sam looked up, stunned into silence by Olivia's bare breasts. She had also lost her pants, revealing black or dark blue boxer shorts. She was breathing hard, her dark skin flushed in the darkness. Her hair was wild from Sam's raking fingers during their kiss.

The strap-on was dangling from the fingers of Olivia's right hand. She held it up and said, "So, Colonel. Do you want to give or take?"

Sam was startled by the blunt question, but she recovered quickly. "Take me."

Olivia arched an eyebrow.

"What?" Sam said.

"Nothing," Olivia said. She hooked her left thumb in her boxers and shoved them down. Sam stared at her shaved pubic mound. "It's just that you seem like the kind who likes to strap it on."

"Oh," Sam said. "I do. I love it. But I really... want you to fuck me, Olivia Benson."

Olivia shivered and breathed, "Good answer."

"But I get to be on top." She pushed off the couch and knelt next to Olivia. She waited while Olivia stepped into the harness. Sam took the nylon straps and pulled it all the way up Olivia's long legs. "Comfortable?" She breathed. She leaned in and kissed Olivia's hip as she heard a breathed 'yes' from above. Sam tightened the straps and made sure they were snug but not pinching. Then she moved in front of Olivia and eyed the dildo stuck to the front.

Not too long, thick but not insanely so. Sam licked her fingers and stroked it, rolling her palm over her head before she took it into her mouth. Olivia grunted and thrust gently, her hands fisted behind her back. "That's good, Sam," she panted. She put her hand on Sam's head and pushed her back. Sam scooted back onto the couch and skimmed her panties down her legs. Olivia grabbed the underwear and pants with both hands and wrenched them down and off. 

Sam smiled and put her feet on Olivia's stomach. Olivia drew one to her mouth and kissed the toes. Sam moaned and whispered, "That's good..."

Olivia kissed the curve of Sam's instep and looked down at her. She had known Alex for two years before they had started sleeping together. Now, a mere forty-eight hours after meeting her, she had Samantha Carter on her couch, legs spread, wet and ready. She had thought she and Alex had their whole lives. There was something to be said for knowing there was a deadline, knowing that there would be no second chances with this woman. She might as well make their one night together memorable. 

She pushed Sam back and moved closer, between her legs, and used one hand to guide the head of her rubber cock to the wet outer folds of Sam's pussy. "Do you want me to fuck you?" Olivia breathed.

Sam managed a quaking, "Yes..."

"Do you want it hard?"

"No," Sam said. She looked up into Olivia's eyes and added, "Not at first."

Olivia put one hand on Sam's hip and kept the other on her new appendage as she moved her knees onto the couch. Sam lifted her hips and settled against Olivia's thighs. "Good girl," Olivia said. She slipped her hands around Sam's waist, linking her fingers in the small of her back. She closed her eyes and sank deeper into Sam.

"Slow," Olivia repeated. She closed her eyes and leaned her head back, using her hips to guide her rhythm against Sam. Sam, beneath her, wrapped around her, thrust back with increasing passion. Olivia grunted and Sam moaned in reply. 

Sam, still half-dressed from the waist up, suddenly tightened her thighs in a pincher move around Olivia's waist. She pushed with her upper body and pushed Olivia back. Olivia found herself upended, and forced to follow Sam's guidance down to the couch cushions. She was on her back, her feet on the floor, as Sam settled on her lip and sank back onto the dildo. Her blonde hair had fallen forward with the reversal of positions and caught in her eyelashes. She smiled and rolled her hips. 

"Picking up the pace, Colonel?" Olivia asked. Her chest was flush, her nipples painfully erect. 

Sam chuckled low in her throat and cupped Olivia's breasts in her hands. "You could say that, Detective."

"Fine," Olivia growled. "I can take a top."

Sam stretched out and gripped the back of the couch on either side of Olivia's head. "Oh, really."

Olivia craned her neck and buried her face in Sam's cleavage. She kissed, licked and inhaled the scent of her sweat, lathed her tongue across the almost-invisible freckles and kissed Sam's nipples through her bra. 

Sam lifted her hips and then ground herself down against Olivia's cock. Sam pressed her knees deeper into the soft couch cushions and closed her eyes. "Bite them," she breathed. Olivia's teeth found Sam's nipples through her bra and Sam cried out. "Harder!"

Olivia moved her hands to Sam's ass and swatted it once, twice. Sam cried out and her body went still. She trembled once, twice, and her arms went limp. She fell on top of Olivia, who laid a line of kisses along Sam's neck and jaw. Sam finally sat up with her knees under Olivia's arms, the dildo still inside of her. Her upper chest was bright red, her mouth open as she struggled to catch her breath. She reached behind herself and blindly trailed her hand along the inside of Olivia's thigh.

Olivia's eyes rolled back and fluttered closed as Sam touched her. 

"Tell me how it feels," Sam ordered.

"Good," Olivia said. She swallowed and Sam watched the motion trail down Olivia's throat. She slipped two fingers inside of her and Olivia shifted on the couch. "Really good," she amended.

"I want to taste you," Sam said. "I want my tongue in you."

Olivia clenched her jaw and moved her hands to Sam's breasts. She pushed the bra out of the way and finally saw Sam's breasts. She pinched and rolled the nipples as Sam had and watched the shockwaves rise to Sam's brain. Her shoulders trembled and her eyes closed depending on how hard Olivia pinched. Sam thrust three fingers inside now and Olivia was losing control. She pushed her hips down to meet Sam's fingers and said, "Sam..."

"Say it..."

"I'm coming... Sam."

Sam bent down and kissed Olivia hard. Olivia's hands left Sam's breasts and went behind her head again. She clenched her fists in Sam's hair and stifled a cry as she tightened her muscles around Sam's invading fingers. "I'm..."

"Shh," Sam whispered against Olivia's mouth. "Sh, it's okay. I've got you."

Olivia moved her head to the side and bit down on Sam's shoulder. Sam withdrew her hand and released the tension in her shoulder. Her arm had been twisted at an odd angle, but it was well worth the dull throb. She brought her fingers up and painted them across Olivia's lips. Olivia opened her mouth, but found Sam's tongue instead of her fingers. That would do. She sucked Sam's tongue and Sam tasted the come she had drawn onto Olivia's lips.

They collapsed into one another with a series of slow shockwaves, like the aftermath of an earthquake. Their kisses grew slow and lazy, tongues retreating and leaving it up to the lips. Sam tightened her thighs and pinned Olivia beneath her, while Olivia ran her hands up and down Sam's back. Olivia finally peeled the damn shirt and bra off, leaving Sam as naked as she was. Sam sat up and looked into Olivia's eyes. "This was just for tonight."

"Right," Olivia said.

Sam kissed her hungrily and sucked her tongue. When they parted, Sam said, "The night isn't over."

Olivia grinned. "I never said it was."

"So what is this, a breather?"

"Yeah," Olivia said. "Breathe while you can. Your mouth is going to be otherwise occupied for the next few hours."

Sam blinked as she finally lifted herself off Olivia's lap. "Hours?"

Olivia took Sam's hand and pulled herself off the couch. She pressed herself against Sam, letting her hands roam the blonde's naked body. She pulled back and said, "Yeah. Hours." She took Sam's hand and walked the smiling blonde down the hall to her bedroom.

#

Sam eased down the aisle until found her row. Vala was in the seat next to hers, legs crossed Indian-style. She slipped past Vala's knees and dropped into the window seat. Vala looked up, smiled at her and then refocused on the flight safety manual she had begged off the stewardess. Cam shoved his suitcase into the overhead bin and said, " _Air_ Force. That's all I'm saying. They have hundreds of planes just sitting around doing nothing. One of them has to be going to Colorado with five empty seats."

"But they do not have peanuts," Teal'c said. "Honey-roasted."

"Neither do these flights anymore," Cam said. "These days it's pretzels or nothing." He looked up and caught Teal'c's stone-faced expression. He backpedaled. "But hey, I'm sure they can find something for you, big guy. Let's go check up front, whaddaya say?" She patted Teal'c on the shoulder and walked him back up to the front of the cabin.

Vala looked at Sam and said, "This says my seat may be used as a floatation device."

"That's right," Sam said. 

"Well, if something is wrong with your seat, you can share mine."

Sam smiled. "Thank you, Vala, but I'm sure that won't be necessary. Flights from New York to Colorado don't go over very much water."

"Still, it is good information to have."

"I suppose," Sam chuckled.

Vala flipped her hair out of her face and looked at Sam. "You seem different."

"What?" Sam turned away from the window and met Vala's gaze.

"More relaxed," Vala said. She rolled her shoulders and rocked her head from side-to-side to demonstrate. "Looser."

Sam blushed and looked down at the paperback novel she had brought for the flight. "Must be the change of scenery."

"Yeah, because you so _rarely_ get to see new and exciting locales."

Sam chuckled and opened her book.

"Did you get laid?"

Sam slapped her book shut and hissed, "Vala!" She looked around to see if Daniel or Mitchell had overheard. 

"Oh, right, sorry." She sighed dramatically and rolled her eyes. "Did you 'make love'?"

Sam looked around to make sure no one had heard and said, "No."

"Do you want me to ask again when Cameron and Teal'c and Daniel get here?"

Sam's blush deepened. "I did meet someone."

Vala grinned and rocked back and forth in her seat. 

"But nothing happened."

"Well, _that_ is a lie."

Sam frowned.

"You've been walking funny ever since last night... when you didn't come back to the hotel." She arched her eyebrow. "And then you slept from breakfast until we left for the airport."

Sam's ears burned.

"You're not still sore, are you?"

Sam opened her book, cracked the spine and tried to focus on the words.

"Well, hopefully _he_ is walking funny, too. Or you gave him a few good scratches on his back. Right?"

Sam cleared her throat and looked out the window at the dark runway. "Oh, yeah. I gave as good as I got..."


	2. From a Million Miles

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A shocking crime in Atlantis leads to Sam bringing in an expert from Earth.

_"Tormented by the futility of life  
I can see the stars, from a million miles  
Are you out there, somewhere?"  
\-- Single Gun Theory_

She felt it in the middle of the night. She woke from her first sound sleep in years and rolled onto her back, blinking at the lights flickering across her bedroom ceiling. Neon lights, headlights, streetlights that needed to be fixed ten years ago... She wasn't sure what had woken her, but she took the opportunity to visit the bathroom.

She had only gotten to bed three hours earlier, after spending the night drinking with her team. The past few days had been horrific. Their jobs were on the line, thanks to Internal Affairs. Cragen might end up being transferred to another department. She and Elliot might get split up and put with different partners. It seemed like the past year, their lives had imploded and all that was left was to sift through the ashes and cinders.

When she returned from the bathroom, she stopped at the window and peered out through the blinds. It wasn't just the badness of the past year that was killing her. It was Alex. They had met for dinner, in the hopes of maybe rekindling the relationship they'd had before the witness protection fracas. An awkward dinner, some bad sex and a forced sleepover later, they had decided they were both different people now. Maybe they had never been meant to be together, but it still hurt. Their official break-up had lasted two damn years. She wasn't sure the ache would ever fade from a wound that deep.

She let the blinds fall, blocking out less than half the light from the street, and shuffled her bare feet across the carpet back to bed. As she climbed under the covers again, she thought about the feeling that had woken her. The feeling that something was about to happen. Something huge. She pulled the blankets up to her chin and closed her eyes.

Whatever was going to happen, it could wait two hours for Olivia Benson to meet it in the morning.

#

Sam wrapped a shawl around her shoulders and stepped out onto her balcony. General O'Neill had always joked that she would end up living where she worked. Now here she was, with quarters just a few steps away from her office. But the view... The only downside was the cold. She liked the sound of the waves, loved the salt smell on the air, but she hadn't anticipated the cold of the air off the water. Her hair was loose, blowing in the wind behind her, and she closed her eyes and thought of other places she might be. Maui. No, someplace colder.

She was considering English beaches in early winter when her comm device chirped. She walked back into her quarters, hooked the device over her ear and said, "Carter."

"This is Sergeant Hayes. We have a situation in one of the botany labs."

Sam was already getting dressed. "What kind of situation?" She remembered an instance at Stargate Command a few years back when a plant had started growing out of control. It had infiltrated the walls and systems of the base. She dreaded the thought of another outbreak like that.

"There was an attack, ma'am."

Sam went cold. "I'll be right there."

#

Olivia didn't want to answer the door. Let whoever it is move on to the next apartment with their magazine subscriptions or whatever bullshit they were peddling now. She knew she should feel lucky that she still had a job, but she was going crazy sitting around with nothing to do. She was dressed in sweatpants and an old Police Academy t-shirt and had spent the morning alternating between staring out the window and trying to tidy her apartment.

The knock came again, louder this time, and accompanied by a voice. "Detective Olivia Benson?"

She turned to face the door from the couch.

"Detective Benson, please open the door. We know you aren't at work."

She pushed off the couch and shuffled to the door. The voices sounded official. She had been on the other side of the door enough times to know the inflection. She looked through the peephole and saw uniforms, but not the kind she had expected. Crisp, dark blue and shining with medals. She remembered seeing the uniform on a certain blonde about two years back. She opened the door and frowned at the Air Force officers. "Can I help you?"

"Are you Detective Olivia Benson?"

"Of course I am," she said. She looked from one man to the other. "What is this about?"

"We have orders to bring you with us."

"Whose orders? Take me where?" 

"Colonel Samantha Carter, ma'am. She's requested we escort you to Colorado Springs, Colorado, immediately."

A shiver ran down Olivia's spine. "What is this about?"

"It's a matter of some urgency, ma'am."

"How long am I going to be gone?" Olivia asked. She already knew she would say yes. Besides, it wasn't like these fellows were likely to give her much choice in the matter...

"As long as it takes, ma'am. It definitely will not be less than a week, I'm told."

At least a week away from this place, away from IAB and the fallout from all the shit that had been going down... a chance to see Samantha Carter again. She said, "You've cleared this with everyone?"

"Yes, ma'am. Everyone who needs to know you'll be incommunicado has already been contacted."

Olivia stepped back and said, "I'll need to change and pack a bag." 

The officers waited in the living room while she quickly packed a suitcase. She was only taking enough for a week; anything longer and she could just do laundry. The officers escorted her downstairs, into a waiting black sedan, and they whisked her off to an air force base. The plane was already waiting to take off as they hustled her on-board. "Must be kind of a big deal," she said as she took her seat.

"I wouldn't know, ma'am," the officer said as he strapped in next to her. 

Olivia looked out the window as the plane taxied down the runway. Forty minutes ago, she had been considering one of the inane daytime talk shows. Now she was on a cargo plane, lifting off and headed for Colorado Springs, Colorado. She knew NORAD was located there, inside Cheyenne Mountain. But she assumed whatever business Colonel Samantha Carter was involved in wasn't quite that well-known.

She settled into the seat of the plane and closed her eyes. Might as well get some rest while she could. Who knew when she would get another chance to sleep?

#

The airman escorted her into a standard, non-descript government briefing room with drab gray carpeting and a massive oak table. The General was seated at the head of the table in front of a window that seemed to show a star map. The wall to his left had a window that was currently blocked by a blast door that had been lowered on the opposite side. Olivia wondered what a window could possibly look out on; they had taken an elevator down twenty-eight levels into the depths of a mountain.

The General smiled and rose from his seat. "Detective Benson, I assume. General Hank Landry. I've heard great things about you."

"Thank you. Why am I here?"

"Straight to the point." Landry sat again and indicated for her to do the same. "I'm afraid to report that there was an incident requiring your specific expertise."

"A rape?" Olivia said. "You have military police for that, right? I'm sure you don't need to pull a New York detective off the street to come in and investigate."

Landry said, "We do have people who could investigate this, but to be honest, very few of them have the clearance necessary to receive the whole story. There are matters of national security to think about. Colonel Carter told me that you were entrusted with some very sensitive information a few years back. Zat guns, nish'ta... and none of it was ever leaked to the public. You've kept quiet, and for that, we're grateful. And it proves you can be trusted."

Olivia said nothing.

Landry pushed a manila folder toward her. "This is a standard non-disclosure agreement. You'll need to sign that before we move on with the explanation of why you're here."

Olivia took the folder and opened it. She took the pen, but didn't sign. "Where is Colonel Carter?"

"I'm afraid she couldn't be here at the moment. It would be easier for her to meet you halfway."

Olivia frowned. She clicked open the pen, hesitated and then signed the paper. She pushed it back to Landry and he folded his hands together in front of him. "Now, since you seem to appreciate getting straight to business: Colonel Carter is in the Pegasus Galaxy."

"What does that mean?"

Landry chuckled. "It's not code, Detective. She's in the Pegasus Galaxy right now. The stars were pointed out to me once, but, ah... I can usually find the moon, and that's about it." He smiled and stood up. "Come over here."

She joined him at the window as he hit a button. The blast door slowly rose out of the way and revealed a stark, concrete bunker beyond.

Olivia wasn't sure what she was looking at. The central piece of the room was a giant stone ring, maybe two stories high, with a metal ramp leading up to it. She frowned. "What is that?"

"That is a Stargate, Detective. That is how Colonel Carter got to the Pegasus Galaxy... and it's how you will join her there."

She blinked. "There was a rape in outer space?"

Landry's smile faltered and he turned toward her. "Yes, there was. Colonel Carter trusted you to investigate it."

Olivia looked at the ring again. "Okay."

#

Olivia changed into an olive-drab uniform - jacket, cargo pants, cap and black boots - and met Colonel Cameron Mitchell in what they called the Control Room. It was underneath the briefing room, connected by a metal staircase. Olivia remembered Mitchell from the incident in New York, with the mind-altering drug called 'nish'ta.' He had been a member of Carter's team. She greeted him with a nod and turned to face the ring again. It seemed to be active, with the decorated inner ring slowly spinning. Occasionally, it would stop and one of the red braces lit up. 

A small man in glasses manned the control console. He announced, "Chevron four encoded."

Mitchell looked her up and down - checking to make sure the uniform was right, not leering - and said, "All right. You look good to go."

Olivia tore her attention away from the ring. "What do I need to know?"

"The only really pertinent information is that that..." he pointed through the glass at the Stargate, "...is a trip and a half. I was a die-hard flyboy until I stepped through that for the first time. You'll love it, but you'll be ruined for any other kind of travel."

Olivia forced a smile. "I can't wait."

Mitchell nodded. "Now, to take care of your other questions... it doesn't hurt, it doesn't feel like much of anything, really. You may have a little queasiness on the other side, but that's normal. My advice is to exhale on this side, inhale on the other side."

"This side of what?"

The man in glasses said, "Chevron seven, locked!" The Stargate in the other room seemed to explode. Olivia jumped back from the control table and Mitchell caught her before she fell. Her eyes were wide, her jaw hanging open as she watched the explosion settle into a solid, vertical pool of blue light. "Oh, my God," she gasped.

Mitchell smirked at the man in glasses. "I tell ya, we oughta give tours of this place..."

When Olivia had started blinking again, Mitchell escorted her down to the Gate Room. "I'm not going to be able to join you, kind of got a lot of irons in the fire here, you know. But Sam will be on the other side. She'll take care of you, fill you in on everything you need to know." He walked her up the ramp, closer and closer to the impossible thing at the other end. Mitchell smiled at her and swept his fingers across the pool. It rippled like water.

"I'll drown," she said.

"Nope, no one has yet." He seemed to catch himself and shrugged. "Well, there was that one time. But that was a Russian expedition. Nothing to do with us, I promise. You ready?"

"No."

"Too bad. You know how much it costs to turn this thing on?" He smiled and said, "Have a nice trip."

He shoved her forward.

Olivia reached out instinctively to catch herself before she hit the ground and both hands disappeared into the blue. Pins and needles, like both of her hands had fallen asleep at the same time, began to spread. She couldn't stop herself and fell the rest of the way through. By the time she thought to panic, she was back on solid ground. Suddenly someone had their arms around her torso and she was on her knees. She was retching, but her stomach was empty. Thank God she'd never finished her coffee.

"It's all right," a soft voice next to her ear said. "Take your time. It happens to everyone."

"What just happened?" Olivia rasped.

"You just traveled a couple hundred thousand light years. Give or take."

Olivia swallowed hard and looked up. She saw Samantha Carter for the first time in two years. She was just as beautiful as Olivia remembered. The only difference was that her hair had grown and was currently pulled back into a ponytail. Olivia smiled. "Hi."

"Hi," Sam said. She returned the smile and nodded at Olivia's hair, which was also in a ponytail. "Looks like we have the same stylist. Can you stand?"

"I think so." She took Sam's hand and hoisted herself up. She leaned against Sam's side as she was walked to a chair and lowered down. "God. Colonel Mitchell was right. That was quite a trip."

"Well, you'll have a few more chances to enjoy it. This is Midway Station. We still have to go through another Stargate to reach our destination."

"Our destination...?"

"Atlantis." She anticipated Olivia's next question and nodded. "Yes, the lost city of Atlantis. It's an ancient highly technologically-advanced outpost in the Pegasus Galaxy."

"Atlantis is in space," Olivia muttered. She looked around for a window. "This is outer space? But there's gravity."

Sam nodded. "Yes, there is. We perfected artificial gravity a while ago. Well... borrowed, really."

"Borrowed?"

"From aliens," Sam said. She squeezed Olivia's hand. "Are you okay?"

Olivia took a deep breath, exhaled and shook her head. "No. But I will be."

"Well, we have time. There's a quarantine imposed on all travelers from Earth. We'll have to stay here for two days before we're cleared to go through the other Stargate."

"What if the people in charge, on the other side, don't clear us?"

Sam smiled. "Well, there's little chance of that happening. 

"Why?"

"I'm the one in charge."

Olivia blinked. "You're the leader of Atlantis." 

"And I'm a full Colonel now."

"Congratulations."

"Thank you."

Olivia said, "I think you should start talking. Because it's going to take the full two days for me to grasp everything that just happened."

Sam leaned back. "Okay. The broad strokes. This station is a midpoint between Stargate Command on Earth and the Atlantis base. The Stargate doesn't have enough power to connect the two destinations directly, so we jerry-rigged a network to link them together. We discovered Atlantis just over four years ago. We sent an expedition to explore the city and they set it up as an outpost. Are you with me so far?"

"Where do the aliens come in?"

"The aliens," Sam said. "The aliens are complicated. It won't be necessary for you to know about them for your job here. Suffice to say, if anything blue-green and... alien-looking offers to shake your hand, decline."

"Right."

"The expedition is multi-national. The best and brightest scientists from all over the world were brought in to explore the city and hopefully make use of the technology we find there."

"Okay. So you're living in this city, exploring it..."

"It, other worlds, and the differences between our world and alien planets. Dr. Antoinette Poole, the woman who was attacked, is a botanist. She was studying the effects of alien atmospheres on Earth plants."

Olivia said, "She was raped?"

Sam nodded and looked down, her bangs shielding her eyes. "Yes. About four days ago, a security officer found her in her lab. She had been working late at night. Her clothes were torn, her face was bruised and bloody... when she woke up, she said that she had been raped."

"Four days?" Olivia said. "Why did you wait so long to call for help?"

"It took two days for us to determine the cause wasn't alien in origin. It took another forty-eight hours for me to make the decision to bring you in, and convince my bosses it was worth the risk."

"I thought you were the boss."

"Just of Atlantis. I still have to deal with an oversight committee. Believe me, bureaucrats are everywhere."

Olivia nodded. "So I assume there were no... alien influences?"

"No. We've encountered viruses that can affect a person's behavior in this way in the past. Make them aggressive, sometimes sexually."

Olivia frowned. "You're saying a virus can make someone rape another person? I don't believe it. I know what I saw the last time I worked with you, but a rapist is a rapist."

Sam leaned back, seemed to debate something with herself for a moment, and then said, "I practically raped my commanding officer ten years ago when I was under the influence of the virus I'm talking about. My _male_ commanding officer. Because he would be good breeding stock." She raised her eyebrow. "Impossible is one thing I've learned not to say on this job."

"I stand corrected," Olivia said. "Please, continue."

"We examined Dr. Poole, and looked at everyone who had been working for her. But we're in a bit of a bind."

"Everyone on the base was hand-picked to be there," Olivia said. "They were vetted by the United States government and the thought that a rapist slipped through your fingers..."

"Exactly," Sam said. "Another reason they were willing to bring in someone from the outside. We have civilian scientists working alongside the military, so sometimes tensions are a bit strained."

"God, no wonder your people were willing to bring me in."

Sam nodded and reached out. She took Olivia's hand and squeezed it. "Thank you for coming, Olivia. You're saving my life."

Olivia looked down at Sam's hand. She turned her hand over and pressed her palm to Sam's. "I couldn't resist seeing you again."

Sam inhaled sharply and straightened her spine, rolling her shoulders as she threaded her fingers with Olivia's. "I didn't want to be presumptuous."

"So I'm assuming you're not with anyone...?"

"No," Sam said. "Not lately."

Olivia nodded. She took her hand from Sam's and leaned back. "That's good to know."

Sam smiled. "We have two days. Anything else you would like to know?"

Olivia said, "What's with the hair?"

Sam laughed and reached back, drawing her ponytail through her fingers and letting it drop onto her shoulder. She nodded at Olivia and said, "I could ask you the same thing."

Olivia grinned.

#

The quarters - tiny, cramped spaces with a foot locker and a window - had obviously been added as an afterthought. But Olivia didn't notice the room. She dropped her bag near the bed, ignoring it as it tumbled to the floor, and walked directly to the window. She didn't dare blink, could barely breathe. She touched the glass - it couldn't be regular glass, could it? It would shatter - and wondered if it really felt cold, or if she was just imagining it.

"Pretty impressive, isn't it?"

Olivia didn't turn around. Stars, strange blue-green amorphous clouds that seemed close enough to touch but were really further than anyone had ever traveled before. She shook her head and finally said, "Oh, my God."

Sam's voice came from directly behind her. "Look to your right."

Olivia turned her head and had to move closer to the window. What she saw made her gasp. A swirling yellow nebula, seemingly directly ahead of them. "Oh, my God."

"That way is Earth," Sam said. "Everyplace, everything, everyone you know is about... one-point-three-five-five million light years that way."

Olivia turned and found herself trapped between Samantha Carter and eternity. Behind her, there was nothing for a billion miles. Her heart fluttered. 

"How about you?" Sam asked. Her voice was low and husky, her eyes focused on Olivia's lips. "You know I'm not with anyone." She touched Olivia's hip and quickly withdrew her hand. 

"I haven't seen anyone in a while," Olivia breathed. She turned her head to look at the stars again. "Oh, how do you stand it?"

Sam put her hand on Olivia's chin and turned her head so they were looking at each other again. "I really want to kiss you."

Olivia leaned in and touched her lips to Sam's. Sam put her hand on Olivia's hip, slid it around to the small of her back and pressed her against the window. Olivia moaned, suddenly afraid that the window would break and she would go hurtling out into space. She opened her mouth to Sam's tongue and wrapped her legs around Sam's waist. 

Sam used her free hand to pull down the zipper of Olivia's jacket. Her fingers groped for the hem of her black t-shirt and yanked it up, baring Olivia's belly. Sam broke the kiss and slid down to her knees, kissing Olivia's chin and her neck and her breasts before she pressed her face into the smooth, warm skin of her stomach. She touched her tongue to Olivia's navel, dipped it inside, swirled it and pressed her lips against the downy, almost invisible hair of her abdomen.

Olivia reached out with both hands, braced herself against the window frame and lifted her legs. She rested her thighs on Sam's shoulders and rested the back of her head against the window. _Next to space. The only thing between me and space is this thin layer of whatever it is._ She was on the edge of oblivion with a gorgeous woman between her legs undoing the button of her trousers.

She looked down and saw the top of Sam's head, her ponytail held with a plain black scrunchy. Sam was broader, more muscular than Alex, but the resemblance was definitely there. Olivia's breath caught and she said, "Hold, wait... Sam..."

Sam had Olivia's trousers open, her hands on Olivia's hips in anticipation of shoving them down. She was focused on her dark gray panties and had to force herself to look up into Olivia's eyes. "What? Should I not..."

Olivia ran her hand down Sam's face. The long blonde hair, the pink skin... it was almost close enough that she could pretend... Sam closed her eyes and let Olivia explore her cheeks, her nose, her lips. Sam opened her mouth and sucked Olivia's fingers in. She sucked them gently, letting her tongue curl around the pads as Olivia slowly pumped them in and out. Sam moaned and eased Olivia's pants down her thighs. Olivia lifted her hips off the windowsill and let her pants be pushed down. 

"Who?" Sam asked when Olivia's wet fingers fell from her mouth. "Who do I remind you of?"

"It doesn't matter," Olivia whispered. "We're the only two people here." She put her hand on the back of Sam's neck and guided her down. They were the only people for a million light years. Their closest neighbors were in a different solar system. Her toes curled inside of her boots as Sam kissed her through her panties. Olivia's heart pounded and she arched her back. 

Sam pushed Olivia's underwear out of the way and brushed the pad of her thumb over Olivia's pussy lips. Olivia closed her eyes and pressed against Sam's touch. Sam licked her lips and bent down. She kissed Olivia's thighs and then lifted her thumb out of the way. As her tongue touched the puffy, outer lips of Olivia's pussy, her thumb slowly circled the hood of Olivia's clit. 

She was slow in her lovemaking, gentle and patient. She backed off just long enough to suck her thumb, getting it wet so that it could slide easily across Olivia's clit. Her tongue was mighty, sweeping and probing and gently easing her lips apart with sure, quick strokes. Olivia turned her head, her jaw dropping, and opened her eyes.

All she could see beyond her faint reflection was space. Stars, the nebula, the strange clouds. Lights that would flicker briefly and then vanish. Starships? Dying stars? Her eyes drifted shut and she reminded herself where she was. Higher than she'd ever been, farther than she'd ever been, on a _fucking space station_ and Sam's tongue was inside of her. She grunted and pressed herself against Sam's mouth. 

She folded into herself as she came, her upper body bending forward over Sam as her lower body clenched. She crossed her arms at the wrist, put her hands on Sam's back and squeezed her eyes shut as Sam's licks turned into gentle kisses on her pubic hair and thighs. Sam licked from Olivia's upper thigh to her knee and then sat up.

They stared at one another for a moment, Olivia's eyelids drooping from her climax, as they caught their breath. Then Olivia pulled Sam to her, shoved her backwards with a bruising kiss and stumbled to the cot. Sam groped behind herself to find the edge of the cot, hoisted herself up and pulled Olivia onto the canvas with her. They kissed as they fought to undo zippers and catches, their clothes slowly coming loose as the metal frame croaked beneath them. 

Olivia slid her hand over Sam's stomach and shoved it down into her pants, past her underwear to the slick folds of her pussy. Sam grunted and pressed her face into Olivia's shoulder. She thrust her hips against Olivia's hand. "Inside," she gasped. "Put your fingers inside of me, Olivia..."

"Sam..."

Sam lifted her head and growled. She ground her hips against Olivia's fingers, tightened her thighs and climaxed with a weak whimper. Olivia kept her hand where it was, kissing Sam's breasts through her thin blouse. 

Finally, Sam sagged into Olivia's arms, her face against Olivia's throat. "We're not going to be able to sleep together on this cot," she finally said.

Olivia shifted and the cot groaned under their combined weight. As Olivia dumped the blanket and pillows on the floor, Sam stood up and stripped out of her clothes. Olivia, on her knees, looked up at Sam's naked body. Her breasts were fuller than she remembered, her stomach flatter and more toned. Her pubic hair was neatly trimmed, and the muscles of her thighs rippled as she kicked out of her trousers. 

"What?" Sam said when she noticed Olivia staring. She reached back, undid her ponytail and shook her hair free.

"Two days, huh?" Olivia said with a grin. "Before we can go anywhere."

"Well," Sam said as she lowered herself to the blanket. She draped her arms around Olivia's neck and pulled her down alongside her. "It's more like forty-five hours now."

"Either way," Olivia said as she kissed between Sam's breasts. "Plenty of time."

#

When the two day quarantine expired, Olivia stood next to Sam at the dialing computer. She watched as Sam pressed a seemingly nonsensical series of buttons that had patterns drawn on them. Sam nodded at the Stargate. "Watch." She hit the 'enter' button and the Stargate came to life. Unlike the one in Colorado, the new one was lit with blue chevrons. It didn't spin, but the patterns Sam had 'dialed' lit up in the correct order. The blue pool was the same, however; it exploded outward toward them and Olivia took a step back.

"That one is different."

"Different galaxy, different network," Sam explained. She took Olivia's hand and walked her down to the front of the Stargate. "It's why we needed this outpost to connect them. That, and the distance between our galaxies."

"Who built it?"

"The Stargates or the network connecting them?"

"Either. Both. I don't know," Olivia said. She was scared of going through again and was willing to delay it by any means possible.

"Well, the Stargates were built by a race we call the Ancients. Not really very creative, but you know how it is. As for the bridge, well... it's the McKay/Carter Intergalactic Gate Bridge."

"'Carter'? As in...?"

Sam smiled.

"Your name is second."

Sam's smile widened to show her teeth and she shrugged. "I didn't care enough to fight for first billing."

"You mean you weren't egotistical enough."

"What are you, a detective?" Sam said. She winked and released Olivia's hand to touch the device hooked over her ear. "This is Colonel Carter to Atlantis. Preparing to step through the Stargate with Detective Benson."

A few seconds later, Olivia heard a voice through a small speaker on the outside of the earpiece. "Confirmed, Colonel Carter. The door is open and you're cleared to come through."

Sam looked at her. "Are you ready to see Atlantis?"

"As I'll ever be," Olivia said.

Sam stepped closer and lowered her voice. "It's perfectly safe. It's a little uncomfortable the first time, but then it gets easier every time after. I've done it thousands of times by now."

Olivia exhaled and shrugged. "I've come this far. And unless I want to spend the rest of my life stuck between galaxies with you..." She looked at Sam and arched an eyebrow. "Well. I'll go anyway."

Sam laughed and said, "Do you want a push?"

"No." She took a deep breath, let it out and stepped forward. Another wrenching, twisting, nothing sensation, falling and standing up too quickly combined to make her feel stretched and like every limb had fallen asleep at the same time and then... she was in another room. She was almost blinded after the darkness of Midway Station. It was impossibly grand, massive with light green walls and windows everywhere. A short staircase with lights set into the steps rose from the floor and branched off to the left and right. At the landing, stained glass windows shone with impossibly bright light. It looked like a fairy tale.

She blinked, brought up a hand to cover her eyes and turned to see Sam was indeed directly behind her. Sam put her hand on Olivia's shoulder. "Olivia Benson, welcome to the city of Atlantis."

"Thank you," Olivia muttered. She was busy staring at everything. The walls, the walkways of the second level. There was a glassed-in control room that was far more elegant than the one she had seen back on Earth. _Back on Earth,_ she thought. _There's a concept for you._

When her gaze fell on the steps again, she saw two men coming down toward them. One was tall, thin and had an unruly head of dark black hair. He was unshaved, the sleeves of his dark blue jumpsuit rolled up to his elbows. The other man was even more unkempt, his jacket unzipped. He looked frustrated, irritated and harried.

Sam said, "Olivia Benson, meet Lieutenant Colonel John Sheppard and Dr. Rodney McKay."

"Nice to meet you both." Olivia shook their hands and said, "McKay, huh?"

Sam chuckled and McKay looked up. "What? What, were you two talking about me?"

"Lighten up, Rodney," Sam said. Her mood changed when she asked Sheppard, "How is she doing?"

"Good. She's awake, but she can't remember anything about the attack. Keller hasn't been able to give us anything else to go on."

Olivia said, "I guess that's my cue."

"I'll show you the way to the infirmary," Sheppard said.

Sam said, "I can handle it, Colonel."

"Are you sure? It's no bother."

Sam glared at him and Sheppard lifted his hands in surrender. "Okay. Fine. Just call me if you need anything."

Sam took Olivia's duffel bag and handed it to a nearby airman with instructions on where to take it. Olivia waited until they were out of earshot and said, "Horny men at the edge of the galaxy."

"They're harmless," Sam assured her.

"No," Olivia said. "I didn't mean it to be funny. You trust Sheppard, right?"

Sam didn't hesitate. "I do."

"He just about tripped over his tongue when he saw me. I trust your word that he wouldn't try anything, but it's a bad sign. How is the ratio of men to women on the base?"

Sam shrugged. She hadn't thought about it. "I supposed it's about seventy-thirty in favor of the men."

"It's _Lord of the Flies_ ," Olivia said. "Even you're not immune to it."

Sam bristled at that. "I'm sorry. I thought you wanted..."

"I did," Olivia said softly. "All I'm saying is that there's a possibility that someone on this base is sexually frustrated. Maybe enough so that they would go to the extreme of rape."

"We have regular contact with Earth," Sam argued. "People take weeks off, they go home... no one gets frustrated enough to attack anyone."

"Maybe you should check that," Olivia said. "See if there's anyone who hasn't been back to Earth for a while. Maybe they're working on a long-term project, maybe they claim they don't have anyone to see back on Earth and are content to give their shore leave to someone else."

Sam dropped the subject as they walked the rest of the way to the lift. She pressed the call button and stepped back, worrying her lip. She had considered Olivia's idea, but she hadn't truly wanted to explore it. There was one person on the base who fit the bill, but she really did not want to think him capable of something like this.

#

The infirmary was quiet; apparently Dr. Poole was still the only patient. Sam found a petite brunette at the back peering into a microscope. "Dr. Keller. This is Detective Olivia Benson. Olivia, Dr. Jennifer Keller." 

The doctor looked up and gave a perfunctory nod to Olivia. "Nice to meet you. Colonel. I'm glad you're back."

"Have you found something?" 

The trio walked to a nearby bed. Dr. Antoinette Poole was in a rumpled white hospital gown, her right eye covered by a gauze patch. There was a bruise under her left eye, and another bandage covered her right arm. Her right hand was encased in a white glove. She was asleep and Sam said, "Colonel Sheppard told us she was awake."

"She dropped off a few minutes ago," Keller said. "I could wake her..."

"No," Sam said quickly. "Let her rest. Have you found anything?"

Keller shook her head. "We haven't found anything to point toward a suspect; we're pretty sure whoever it was wore a condom."

Sam said, "I would ask if you had supplied any recently..."

"Take a number," Keller said. "Thirty men have requested condoms recently, and eight women."

"Requested?" Olivia said.

"Requisitions," Sam explained. "There's not exactly a CVS down the street for people to drop in and buy a box."

Olivia shook her head. "Right. I keep forgetting where in a different galaxy."

Keller said, "Because of the condom, there was very little physical evidence. But we did find this." She pulled the sheet back and gently touched Poole's left wrist. There was a smear of green, like someone had spilled paint on her arm and she had missed a spot cleaning up. 

"What is it?" Sam asked.

"Mold. I asked one of the members of her team, and they revealed she had been working on a plant from P44-8M7 that produced mold like this. They checked, and it started flowering the night she was attacked. When it flowers, it ejects spores of the mold that cling to whatever warm body happens to be nearby."

"Like the rapist," Sam said. She looked at Olivia. "Looks like you might have a scarlet letter to look out for."

"One can only hope," Olivia said. "How did you find her?"

"A guard wandered across her on his patrol," Sam said. "She was alone, and the guard didn't see anyone else in the area before or after. When we brought her here, Dr. Keller confirmed that she had been raped as well as beaten."

"Did you know her?"

Sam nodded. "We met briefly. She was assigned here before I was, but we had a meeting to discuss her department's annual budget. She was polite. Quiet."

"No enemies, then?"

Keller answered. "Everyone seemed to love her. We've had a steady stream of people she worked with. Flowers, cards..."

"Who? Do you have their names?"

Keller blinked. "Um. No. I left them alone."

"One of those well-wishers may have been the rapist covering his tracks," Olivia said. All the amazing sights she had been blinded by - the city, the Stargate... Sam - had faded. Now she was a detective again, facing a doctor who was trying to protect a patient. "I'll need to see the cards and flowers."

"Okay," Keller said.

"In the meantime, we've set you up in a spare office," Sam said. "I'll show you the way."

When they were alone again, Sam said, "You shouldn't have yelled at her like that."

"What?" Olivia said. 

"Keller is young," Sam said. "She's never worked on a rape before. She's doing the best she can. She saw people bringing cards, she thought it was nice. It's not the end of the world that she didn't document each and every one of them and watch their visits for suspicious behavior. You were too hard on her."

"I'm working a rape, Colonel," Olivia said. "I'm not sorry if I step on any toes in the process."

Sam turned and stepped into Olivia's way. "You had better be sorry. One person on this base was violated. No one else will be. I want you to catch whoever did this, but not at anyone else's expense. Do you understand me, Detective?"

The forty-eight hours they had spent making love on Midway evaporated. They now had both feet firmly in the professional world. 

Olivia said, "I'm not going to play nice if I think someone made a mistake. Yelling keeps future mistakes from being made."

"Or it makes the person so jumpy that they make even more mistakes."

"Who are you protecting, Colonel? Because it's certainly not Poole."

"I'm protecting Dr. Keller," Sam said. " _One_ person on this base is a rapist, Olivia. I won't have you treating everyone like a suspect."

"Wrong," Olivia said. "The reason you brought me here is because I am the only one who can treat _anyone_ like a suspect. The rest of you are too cozy in your little outpost to know what to do when the real world comes barging in."

Sam glared at Olivia a little longer, then stepped around her and stormed angrily back down the hall. "What about my office?" Olivia called, not bothering to turn to watch her go.

"Find it yourself," Sam said. "You're the detective, after all."

Olivia stopped at the end of the corridor and stepped out onto the balcony. She leaned against the railing and stared out at the city around her. It was something out of science-fiction. She had gone through a portal, to a space station a billion light years from nowhere, to a magnificent shining city in the sea called Atlantis. An alien-built city inhabited by an expedition of military officers and scientists. It was too much to take in.

Someone came up behind her and contritely said, "You'll never find your office alone. This place is the size of Manhattan."

Olivia turned and saw Sam. "I'm not going to apologize."

"I know," Sam said. "I wasn't going to ask you to. You're right. We brought you in because we need you to ask the hard questions. We're not going to get anywhere working of preconceived notions. And we're not going to get anywhere protecting people. So there is someone you need to speak to."

#

The door slid open - another science-fiction aspect of this city - and Olivia walked into the room that had been set aside for interrogations. The man at the table shifted uncomfortably and pushed himself straighter in his seat. Olivia checked the file. "Major Evan Lorne?"

"That's right, ma'am," he said. He kept his jaw tight, his eyes locked on hers as she took her seat.

"I suppose you know why I'm here."

"Someone assaulted Dr. Poole. I assume you're investigating me, although I don't know why."

"According to the file Colonel Carter provided, you were recently revealed to be a sleepwalker."

Lorne sighed. "Not since I was a kid. This recent instance was alien-influenced."

Olivia closed the file and folded her hands on top of it. "Seems like a lot of stuff on this base can be attributed to 'alien influence.' Where were you the night Dr. Poole was attacked?"

"I was here. On-base. Asleep in my quarters. I had just gotten back from a three-day scouting mission on M66-21G and I was pretty damn exhausted."

"Did you know Dr. Poole?"

He shrugged. "To say hello to. We weren't exactly friendly, but there are a lot of people on this base. We can't all be friends with each other."

"No, I guess you can't." She paused. "Colonel Carter must like you. She was willing to leave your name off her suspect list."

"Frankly, there's no reason I should be on it, ma'am, other than my sleepwalking. Which is a non-issue."

"Dr. Keller reported that you asked for some sleeping pills recently."

Lorne sighed. "There was an incident a few weeks ago. I got hooked on some uppers I was using to keep my memory intact." He smirked. "Alien influence again. They were keeping me up nights. What with the one-time resurgence of my sleepwalking, I decided to be better safe than sorry."

"Why haven't you been home recently?"

Lorne frowned. "What?"

"Earth. Colonel Carter tells me that you haven't requested leave for over three months. And since she's only been here for three months, it makes me curious. How long _has_ it been?"

Lorne shifted and pursed his lips. "It's been a while."

"How long?"

"I don't know! The last time I went to Earth to visit someone we had a fight. We broke up."

"Oh, I'm sorry to hear that. Long relationship?"

"Six years." He looked annoyed at being reminded of it. 

"There's no one else on Earth you might want to visit? Family...?"

"My parents live in Maine. By the time I flew there from Colorado Springs, I would only have enough time to turn around and come straight back to Atlantis. It's not worth the trouble. I send them cards as often as I can."

Olivia said, "Must be hard. Long-term relationship folding like that... being stuck here alone in Atlantis. How do you take the edge off?"

"Masturbation," Lorne said bluntly. "Are we done here, or do you need to see the magazines?"

Olivia idly wondered if the porn came in a separate shipment or if it required quarantine as well. She cleared her throat and said, "No significant others on Atlantis? No one-night stands?"

"Kind of hard to find a willing partner, ma'am."

Olivia raised an eyebrow. "Handsome guy like you? Come on, Major."

He leaned forward with a smirk. "No, ma'am, it's _hard_ because I'm military, and there aren't exactly any gay bars around here. My relationship back on Earth was with a man, a civilian, named Henry Jameson. I've been celibate on Atlantis because I'm not out. I didn't attack Dr. Poole - conscious or not - because she's female. I didn't find her attractive."

Olivia didn't have a reply for that. "I assume Colonel Carter doesn't know."

"No. Only Colonel Sheppard and the members of my team."

Olivia said, "All right. I'm letting you go, but your off-world activities are suspended until further notice."

"You don't have--"

"Colonel Carter granted me that right. If I suspect someone..."

"I would never hurt a woman, Detective, and I would _never_ rape one."

"Be that as it may. I'd like it if you stuck around for the time being."

Lorne sagged and held his hands out palm up. "Fine. Can I go back to my quarters or do you need to fit me for an ankle bracelet?"

"You can go."

Lorne pushed away from the table, nearly tipping the chair over as he rose from it. Olivia stayed seated until the Major was gone, then leaned forward and rested her elbows on the table. One suspect down, only a couple hundred to go.

#

Dr. Poole woke a few hours later, around lunchtime. Olivia returned to the infirmary, on her own since she was starting to get the hang of the place, and joined Dr. Keller at the woman's bedside. Her eyelids hung heavy and she stared at the wall until Keller spoke. "Toni? This is Olivia Benson. She's a detective."

"Detective?"

"Colonel Carter brought me in to find out what happened to you," Olivia said softly. "She wanted to make whoever did this was brought to justice. I know it's hard, but if you could try and remember what happened..."

"I went through it with Dr. Keller and Colonel Carter."

"I know. But if you could just try, one more time. It would really help me."

Toni swallowed and closed her eyes. "I was working late in the botany lab. We call it Botany Bay." A slight smile. "It was a little past midnight. Some of the flowers I was working on are night-blooming. I wanted to track their progress. All I can really remember is... checking the growth charts. I might have heard a noise and got up to investigate, but that might have been another night..."

She wiped her eye with her unbandaged hand. The mold that Keller had pointed out earlier was bandaged as well. "I don't remember anything else. I don't remember anything that might help."

"You did fine, Toni," Olivia assured her. She touched the woman's hand and said, "Thank you for your help."

Toni nodded and Olivia stepped away from the bed. Keller followed her. "Is it normal that they don't remember the attack?"

"It happens," Olivia said. "A severe trauma like that. If there was no actual damage, then she might have just blocked it out herself."

"I imagine that makes your job all that much harder."

Olivia nodded. "I'm used to it. Thanks for letting me speak to her."

"No problem."

Olivia left the infirmary and ran into Sam. "Hi. I was just coming to find you."

Sam gestured for Olivia to keep walking and fell into step beside her. "You've cleared Major Lorne?"

Olivia nodded. "I still want to restrict his off-world travel, but it doesn't seem likely he was the suspect. I take it you and he are pretty close?"

Sam nodded. "We were best friends in another reality."

"Another reality?" Olivia frowned. "Please tell me you're being metaphorical."

"Sorry," Sam said. 

Olivia sighed. Aliens, faster-than-light travel and now alternate realities. What next, robots? Clones? "It's good, though. It shows me that you're not going to protect people just because you like them."

"That would defeat the purpose, don't you think?" Sam said. She held out the file she was carrying. "But on that subject, your next interview."

Olivia opened the file. "Dr. Colin Kavanagh. Another friend?"

"Not exactly," Sam said.

#

Kavanagh straightened as the door opened and Olivia stepped in. "Dr. Kavanagh," she said. "Thanks for agreeing to meet with me."

"Well, it's not like I had much of a choice, now is it?" he said as she took a seat. He was a tall, thin man with his hair pulled back in a short ponytail. He wore wire-rimmed glasses and his lips were pressed tightly together in a smirk. His arms were folded across his chest; classic defensive posture, Olivia thought. 

"Besides," he continued, "I've been expecting this. Anything goes slightly wrong on this base, I'm the one called in. I'm the number one suspect. It's harassment." 

"I've noticed you put in a lot of complaints about this base's former commander, Dr. Elizabeth Weir."

"She didn't know what she was doing half the time. She was surrounded by yes-men and brainwashed masses, so no one was ever willing to tell her when she was risking the lives of everyone on this base for a _whim._ I took it upon myself to make sure the people back on Earth knew what was really going on here."

"And yet, Elizabeth Weir was never removed from duty. She was only replaced after she was taken captive on an enemy world. Why do you think the people in charge never listened to your complaints?"

Kavanagh sighed. "Have you ever tried to get bureaucrats to change _anything_? It takes an act of Congress to get softer toilet paper in the restrooms here. As long as the world isn't blowing up, they were content to leave her in charge. Maybe if she'd been removed and sent back to Earth, she would still be alive."

"Maybe she should have been removed," Olivia said. "And maybe Colonel Carter should be reassigned as well."

He shrugged. "She seemed fine at first, but now it seems as if she's going down the same road Dr. Weir did. So yes, maybe it would be best if she left."

"And Dr. Katie Brown? Dr. Antoinette Poole?"

"What?"

"You have a problem with women in charge," Olivia said. "You're a misogynist."

"I am no such thing. I have no problem with women in charge."

"You requested Katie Brown be removed as the head of the botany department when it was feared a plant she had harvested had led to a base-wide instance of memory loss."

He cleared his throat. "At the time..."

"In fact, any time you see an opportunity to remove a woman from power, you grab it."

"I attack incompetence. The fact that these are all women..."

"What about Dr. Rodney McKay? He's not a woman."

Kavanagh stared at her.

"He blew up a solar system two years ago, according to the files Colonel Carter gave me. Dr. Carson Beckett created a retrovirus which nearly killed Colonel Sheppard. And yet, there have been no requests to remove them from duty."

"Dr. McKay is one of the best scientific minds in two galaxies," Kavanagh said. "It would be ludicrous to remove him from duty for something..."

"He's the head of _your_ department, right? If you got him removed, you could be promoted. So it's not a matter of advancement. You just want these women out of power because they're women." She leaned forward. "Do you have a problem with me, Doctor?"

He glared at her through his glasses. "Only in that you're an outsider who has no idea what she's talking about."

"Where were you the night Antoinette Poole was raped?"

"In my quarters. Asleep."

"Alone?"

He smirked again. "Yep."

Olivia leaned back. "Report to the infirmary. I want Dr. Keller to check you out for signs of a particular fungus." She paused and said, "Dr. Keller. She replaced Dr. Beckett, didn't she? A woman taking the place of a man. That can't sit well with you. Get checked as soon as possible." She stood and the door opened. Two guards stepped in and Olivia said, "Make sure he gets to the infirmary."

#

Dr. McKay found Olivia on her way to Sam's office. "Ah, Detective," he said. "Just the woman I was looking for. Sam told me that you were asking about security camera footage. Naturally, we don't have the ability to cover every inch of the base with cameras. Reviewing the footage alone could drive you mad. But I thought of a way around it." They entered the control room and he rounded one of the strange yellow-brown tables. 

He took a seat and punched in a series of codes. He pointed over her shoulder at a display on the wall. It showed an overview of the city. As he typed, bright red lights came to life all over the base, with a higher concentration in the central tower. "This is a life-signs monitor. Usually we only need it in real-time, finding out where people are at a certain instance. Finding out where they _were_ isn't as much of a priority. But I got to thinking about the, ah... attack... and I looked at the layout and discovered there was a way to reverse the feed."

He typed another series of commands and the lights disappeared. A few seconds later, they came back in a different formation. He zoomed in. "This is Botany Bay, where Dr. Poole was working." Sure enough, there was a bright red light in the lab. "According to Dr. Keller, the attack was sometime around twelve-thirty or one in the morning. So we just cue it up to that point and..."

Another red light appeared in the corridor. It moved to the doorway. The red light inside the lab moved to the door and met the newcomer. They stood face-to-face, or what Olivia assumed was face-to-face for a moment and then Poole returned to the lab. The second light followed her. The two lights moved together as if they were dancing. They were too close together and the mechanism wasn't sensitive enough to pick up the more minute movements.

But it was obvious what they were watching. McKay shifted uncomfortably and looked down at the controls. He advanced the read-out five minutes and the red light left the room. "Slow it down," Olivia said. He did as she asked and followed the red light through the empty corridors. He stepped into a transport lift and vanished. "Where did he go?"

"No way to tell," McKay said. "One of those transports can go anywhere in the city." He zoomed back out, wound the image back and tried to see when the red light reappeared at another section. It wasn't as hard as it could have been, since the city was practically deserted at that time of night. "There!" he said. He zoomed in again and Olivia watched as the red light stepped back into the corridor. He moved south casually, passing people in the corridor without stopping to greet them.

"Come on," Olivia muttered. "Go back to your quarters..."

"Mm, no," McKay said. "He's nowhere near the quarters."

"Where is he going?"

"Here." The scientist's voice sounded strained, as if admitting that hurt him. "He's coming to Command."

Colonel Sheppard stepped into Command at that moment. Olivia and McKay both stared at him.

Sheppard frowned. "What?"

"Nothing. Coincidence. Sorry," McKay said.

"But just to put my mind at ease, Colonel, where were you the night Dr. Poole was attacked?"

Sheppard smirked playfully. "I was off-world, Detective Benson. Nice alibi, huh? I wasn't on the planet when the crime occurred."

McKay's eyes had widened and he was snapping his fingers. "Ooh. Oh."

"What's wrong with him?" Olivia asked.

"We still haven't quite figured that out. McKay...?"

McKay looked at Sheppard. "You called in a progress report, right?"

"Yeah."

"You hoped someone would be in Command to answer because it was the middle of the night here." To Olivia, he said, "We have to arrange missions and reports around off-world schedules. Some planets have longer days, some planets are shorter..."

"McKay!"

"You called in at, what, two in the morning? The rapist was _here_ , in Command. Who did you speak to?"

Sheppard looked down and his eyes worked back and forth across the floor as he searched his memory. His brow furrowed, he glanced at McKay and then turned and ran.

"Sheppard!" Olivia called. She ran after him, with McKay bringing up the rear. She heard the scientist call for Colonel Carter over his earpiece as they ran through the corridors. Sheppard knocked people out of his way, clearing the path for Olivia and McKay behind him. "Colonel Sheppard!" Olivia called again. "Stop!"

They ran down a corridor and Olivia had to fight not to turn and look out the windows they passed. She kept her eyes on Sheppard's back, wondering if he was fleeing or leading her to a suspect. Either way, she couldn't let him out of her sight. 

He finally led them into the commissary. He paused at the doorway and looked around the room, giving Olivia a chance to catch up with him before he rushed off again. He ran onto the upper level, grabbed a guy by the back of his jumpsuit and hauled him out of his chair. Sheppard slammed the guy against the wall and said, "Why the hell did you do it? Huh?"

"Colonel!" Olivia barked. Sam had supplied her with one of the 'zat guns' she had used when she helped Carter's team in New York, but she felt awkward wielding it. Sheppard's face was beet red, his lips pulled back over his teeth. The man he was holding, a thin man with a pronounced jaw and a bulbous nose, looked terrified. There were bags under his eyes and his lip trembled as he looked down at Sheppard. "Colonel, put him down..."

Sam came into the commissary behind Olivia. "Colonel Sheppard!"

Sheppard glanced toward them, saw Sam and relaxed his grip. The technician dropped to his feet and reached up to smooth his jumpsuit out. Sheppard stepped back, seemed about to walk away, and then swung his elbow into the guy's face. The technician crumbled. Sheppard walked up to Olivia and gestured. "That's him. That's the guy who was in Command after Dr. Poole was raped."

"Command...?" Sam said.

"I'll let McKay explain it," Olivia said. She helped the technician up and gestured for two nearby airmen to come over as Sheppard left the commissary. "Take this man into custody. I want to have a nice, long conversation with him."

As the man was led out, McKay came running into the room. "I... it was... God, you two are in good shape..."

Sam ignored McKay and looked at Olivia. "Are you sure?"

"You know Sheppard better than I do. Would he just attack someone like this?"

"No," McKay said. "Especially not Dr. Pierson. He and Sheppard swap Johnny Cash records. They watch football together. He and John are friends."

"Probably not anymore," Olivia said.

#

Dr. Nicholas Pierson was checked out by Dr. Keller to make sure Sheppard hadn't done any permanent damage. In the process, they discovered a particular green fungus on the man's buttocks. He had been in the lab when the flower had bloomed. When Olivia interrogated the man, he had broken down and admitted it. He had pursued Poole for almost two years, ever since she came to Pegasus. She had rebuffed him at every turn. That night in the lab, they had both been on late shifts, alone in their respective stations. He thought it was kismet. When she disagreed, he had taken advantage of it.

The attack had been frustration, he said. He was angry that she had turned him down for two whole years. When he had her on the ground, the rape had just happened. He hadn't even realized he was doing it, he claimed. 

Olivia read him his rights and he was removed to the infirmary where the fungus on his ass could be treated before he was returned to Earth for trial. 

Sam found Olivia on a balcony overlooking the city. She joined her at the railing and said, "It's gorgeous, isn't it?"

"Now that I get a chance to enjoy it," Olivia said. "It's a shame I'll be leaving soon."

"You could stay," Sam suggested.

Olivia looked down at Sam's hands. "Thank you. But I would rather not be quarantined on Midway with a rapist."

Sam nodded. "Probably wise. Well, then you could stay here until he's gone."

Olivia grinned. "You just want to keep me here."

"We haven't gotten a chance to spend much time together. I didn't expect the case to get wrapped up so quickly."

"I just wish I could have done more to help."

"You did enough," Sam assured her. 

Olivia said, "As nice as your offer sounds, I should get back to New York. I won't be suspended forever. Being here, working like this... it's made me realize how much I need to bring people like Dr. Pierson to justice."

"I'm glad," Sam said, even though she sounded anything but. "Let me know when you're ready to leave. I'll go to Midway with you and help you fill the time."

"Sudoku puzzles?" Olivia said.

Sam laughed. "Something like that." She reached over and squeezed Olivia's arm. She stepped off the balcony and went back into the dark corridor. Olivia looked back at the city, the gleaming glass towers reflecting the crystal-clear water below. She didn't know how sincere Sam's offer to stay was, or what kind of duration she had in mind. All she really knew was the main reason she had said no was because she had to. If she didn't get back to New York, back to her suspension and eventually back to SVU, she might be tempted to never leave this barely-believable paradise. 

For now, thought, she could just enjoy the view.

#

Sam was right; the third time she went through the Stargate, returning to Midway Station, was much less nerve-wracking. She even took the time to enjoy the trip this time. When she stepped out onto the ramp, she looked around the interior of the station as if it was an old friend. "Well. Two days. Did you bring the Sudokus?"

Sam grinned. "As a matter of fact, I did. But only because I figure one of us will be asleep eventually when the other is awake."

"Smart woman."

"The smartest," Sam said without ego. She pulled Olivia to her and kissed her hard. Olivia broke the kiss and looked into Sam's eyes. "She'll be all right," she said. "Dr. Poole. I've spoken with your doctors and the base psychiatrist. She'll get the help she needs."

"I'm glad. For that, at least, I'm glad you came."

"I couldn't have said no to you, Sam."

Sam smiled. "That's very good to know. Come here." She took Olivia's hand and walked her to the control station. She guided Olivia's hand to the wall and said, "Hold that for a minute, please?"

Olivia gripped it tightly as asked. She turned as Sam walked to the keyboard. She wanted to find a window, something to look out and remind herself that she was in outer space. As she slowly turned, her foot slipped off whatever she had been standing on and she tried to swing it back before she fell. But when she looked down, she could only see the floor beneath her. About six inches below her, to be exact. 

Her feet were drifting backward, like being in a swimming pool. "What...?"

Sam drifted close and wrapped her arms around Olivia's waist. "I turned off the artificial gravity. I can always claim a brief malfunction in the official report."

Olivia looked down and saw Sam's feet were also off the ground. Her moves through the air were graceful, easy. Olivia said, "You're flying."

"I have experience with weightlessness," Sam said. 

"You have a lot of experience with amazing things," Olivia noted.

Sam released Olivia's hip with one hand and unzipped the front of her jumpsuit. Olivia was wearing the black t-shirt that seemed to be standard uniform on both Atlantis and the Colorado base. Sam spread her fingers over the material, over Olivia's upper chest. "I do," she admitted. "Let me show you a couple of them. And let go of the wall."

Olivia closed her eyes and forced her fingers to relax. They slipped away from the wall and she pulled Sam closer. They were both weightless, but clinging to Sam made Olivia feel a little bit safer.

Sam bowed her head and lightly kissed Olivia's lips. Olivia opened her mouth to Sam's tongue and let herself drift as the two of them floated lazily toward the ceiling.


	3. Two Days Grace

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sam and Olivia spend some time together on the Midway Space Station

Sam's moves through the air were graceful, easy. She moved without thought, propelling herself effortlessly back to Olivia's side. Olivia watched her and then raised her eyes, incredulous. "You're flying."

Sam smiled. Sam moved to 'stand' in front of Olivia and grasped her hips. "I have experience with weightlessness."

"You have a lot of experience with amazing things," Olivia noted.

Sam reached up with one hand and grabbed the zipper of Olivia's jumpsuit. She eased it down, exposing the plain black t-shirt Olivia had borrowed from the SGC. "I do. Let me show you a couple of them." She spread her hands over the material and softly said, "Let go of the wall."

Letting go of the wall meant losing her connection to solid ground. But she had Sam's hands on her, and Sam's eyes... she would follow those eyes anywhere. She closed her eyes and let her fingers relax. She felt her palm slide across the smooth metal of the wall and felt like she was drifting. She pulled Sam closed and held tight. Even though they were both weightless, clinging to Sam made Olivia feel just a little bit safer.

She felt Sam's lips touch hers, ever-so-slightly and opened her mouth. Sam's tongue lightly touched hers and Olivia sighed. She pushed her leg between Sam's thighs and dug her fingers into the blonde's shoulders as they floated lazily toward the ceiling.

Sam parted the halves of Olivia's jumpsuit and pushed it off her shoulders. Olivia shrugged and released Sam's shoulders just long enough to free her arms. As she pulled her hands through the cuffs, they twisted in mid-air and Olivia was suddenly on top. She opened her eyes and watched as Sam's hair, tied in a ponytail, drifted up over her head. "My God," Olivia whispered. She craned her neck and looked at the station from her new, unique perspective.

"Hey," Sam said. She kissed Olivia's chest through her T-shirt. "Can we have a little focus here, please?"

Olivia smiled. "Sorry. It's just so..."

"Amazing?" Sam said with a grin.

Olivia smiled and kissed Sam's lips. Sam dug her fingers into the hem of Olivia's shirt and yanked it up and off, tossing it to her right. The shirt didn't travel far, and hung in the air nearby like the Invisible Man was wearing it. Sam kissed Olivia's neck, her chest and collar bone, down to the smooth gray cotton of her bra. 

Olivia hooked her leg on Sam's hip and pressed herself against Sam's thigh. Sam leaned back and pulled down the zipper of her own jumpsuit. Olivia arched an eyebrow when she saw the colonel was naked underneath. "Do your subordinates know you go commando?"

"Think they would get any work done if they did?" Sam grinned. 

Olivia pushed the material aside, baring Sam's breasts. "I'm sure they fantasize about it." She closed her hand around Sam's breast and squeezed. Sam arched her back and they both fell backward. Sam twisted her hips and their descent was changed into a wide circle. Olivia held tight and said, "I'm not going to get used to this..."

"You want me to turn the gravity back on?"

"Not yet," Olivia said. She pinched Sam's nipple and Sam sighed. 

Sam reached back and undid Olivia's ponytail. She ran her hand through it, threading it through her fingers and letting it fall through the stationary air like ribbons on a windy day. Sam kissed along Olivia's jaw as they twisted in the air, very slowly undressing each other. Each move changed their trajectory, every twitch of pleasure sending them off on another tangent. Sam bumped her foot against the wall and they swam across the wide, central space to the opposite end.

Finally, they were both naked, their clothes left in a wide trail behind them. Olivia wrapped her legs around Sam's waist, hooking her ankles together behind her as they kissed. Sam moved her lips to Olivia's cheeks, her eyelids and the tip of her nose, reaching out with one hand to brace them. She used the hand to walk her way down, back to the ground, where she turned and settled Olivia on her lap. 

Olivia pushed the hair out of Sam's face and gently rocked against her. Sam's eyelids fluttered and she moved her hand between them, cupping Olivia's pussy with one hand while keeping the other firmly planted in the small of her back. "This didn't really happen," Olivia whispered as Sam's fingers stroked her insistently. "Aliens and galaxies and... having sex in a weightless space station. It didn't really happen. Right?"

Sam kissed Olivia and, when she pulled back, she said, "You can believe as much of it as you want to."

Olivia traced her hands down Sam's face and said, "This part."

"Any other parts?" Sam asked. "In particular?"

"I can probably think of a couple," Olivia said. She smiled and bowed her head to kiss Sam's neck. Sam slipped two fingers into Olivia's pussy. Olivia rolled her shoulders and inadvertently knocked them off their perch. They fell, and Olivia gasped in anticipation of falling, but instead they just fell sideways. Sam put one bare foot against the wall and pushed as she bent and stretched her fingers. The tips stroked the tender flesh inside of Olivia, pushing her closer and closer to orgasm. "Sam..."

Sam nipped at Olivia's earlobe and growled low in her throat. Olivia's eyes were closed as they spun again, and she whispered in Sam's ear, "I don't know which way is up..."

"It doesn't matter," Sam assured her.

"I know," Olivia sighed. She was short of breath and her voice sounded tearful. For one, brief moment, nothing mattered. Not Earth, not crime, not the law, nothing, not even gravity mattered. The only thing that existed was Samantha Carter and what she was doing to Olivia Benson's pussy. Olivia clung to Sam and said, "I'm going to come, and I don't even know if I'm right-side up."

Sam brushed Olivia's clit with her thumb. Olivia unhooked her feet and let them dangle, she put her hands on Sam's shoulder and tightened her jaw. When she came, she pushed against nothing with both feet and propelled them toward the Milky Way Stargate. Sam pulled back with her shoulder and they spun, taking turns being on top as Olivia climaxed. Sam kissed the throbbing pulse point in Olivia's neck and sucked gently until they hit the far wall.

"Ow," Olivia sighed when she came down off her high.

Sam chuckled. "Yeah. I got quite a few bumps and bruises before I got the hang of it..."

"Well, at the risk of sounding corny... fly me to the moon, Colonel Carter?"

"Again? I thought it was my turn."

Olivia kissed her and then said, "Oh, trust me. You'll get your turn. You just have to earn it."

#

Olivia was wrapped in the blanket from the cot. It wasn't particularly sexy, standard gray wool, but the sight of it wrapped around Olivia's midsection, her long legs extending from the opposite end, was enough to get Sam ready for round two. 

Sam was naked under her coat, which she had put on in case they received a message from Earth or Atlantis and she had to answer on-screen. She lay across the room from Olivia, legs crossed, and watched her eat. They had re-engaged the gravity to take a lunch break. Recharging the engines, Sam said. Olivia had peeled back the foil on her pudding and, after bemoaning the lack of spoons, began to dip her fingers into it and lick them dry.

Sam thought she had never seen a sexier snack pack in all her life.

Olivia licked her lips, saw Sam watching her, and smiled. "So. Might as well tell me some stories."

"What kind of stories?" Sam asked. 

"War stories," Olivia said. "There's this whole big war going on out here, for our benefit. Let's hear the highlights."

Sam said, "Okay. Highlights... well, there was the time an electrical entity took over my body and sent my consciousness into the SGC computers."

#

Olivia licked the last of the pudding from her index finger. Sam had changed position, leaning against the wall next to Olivia as she finished her story. "...they had a bio-weapon all ready to fire into the Stargate. I had to cut the rope and fall... god, I don't know. Twenty feet. The Stargate was horizontal, and I fell straight into it. I came out on the Earth side, which was vertical, and the sudden change of gravity was like... like being hung. Like a sudden, sharp jab that hurled me down. I sprained my shoulder when I hit the ramp."

"What happened to Senator Faxon?"

Sam's face darkened and she shook her head. "We never found out."

Olivia looked down at her pudding cup and set it aside.

#

Sam's head was on Olivia's lap. They hadn't spoken for ten minutes, not since Sam told the story about betraying a human-form android named Fifth. Sam revealed he had later found her, kidnapped and tortured her in the name of love. After a long time, her fingers curling in Sam's hair, Olivia said, "You were following orders."

"That didn't matter to him," Sam said. "I was his only hope to be seen as more than just a thing. And I betrayed him."

Olivia bent down and kissed Sam's head. "I'm sorry."

"For what?"

"When I asked you for war stories. I should've... I didn't think about what it might cost you to remember."

Sam reached up and threaded her fingers through Olivia's. "They're nothing compared to what you have to deal with every day."

Olivia moved her free hand into Sam's jacket and cupped her breast. "You know, no one has called us all day. You could probably take this off."

"Would you be able to control yourself if I did, Detective Benson?"

"Probably not, Colonel Carter."

"Well, in that case." Sam tugged down the zipper and shrugged out of the jacket. "So. Gravity on or off?"

Olivia pulled Sam to her, kissed her hard. "On," she said when the kiss broke. "I want to remember your weight on top of me."

Sam turned and straddled Olivia's lap. She settled against her thigh and pushed the blanket down to reveal Olivia's naked body. "That could probably be arranged."

#

A small alarm beeped on Sam's watch and she sadly looked down to turn it off. She and Olivia were standing in front of the Earth Gate, and Sam was holding off on dialing as long as possible. She looked at Olivia and said, "Well. Forty-eight hours."

Olivia nodded. "Yeah. Looks like it's time to go home."

Sam cupped Olivia's face in her hands and kissed her hard. When they pulled back, Olivia noticed but didn't comment on a tear rolling down Sam's cheek. "I'll see if I can make it back some day."

"You do that," Sam said. "And I've always wanted to see New York."

"I'm a great tour guide. I know all the places not to go."

Sam laughed and squeezed Olivia's hand. She turned to the computer and inputted a seven-symbol code. Before she hit enter, she turned and fished into her pocket. She pressed the card against Olivia's palm. "If you ever need anything... call this number. They'll know how to get in touch with me." She kissed Olivia again, harder this time, as if trying to make sure the kiss lasted a billion miles and however long it was until they saw each other again.

In the middle of the kiss, Sam activated the Stargate. Olivia pulled back and opened her eyes to see the impossible thing in the far wall had come to life. They walked hand-in-hand down to the Gate and Sam said, "This is Colonel Samantha Carter, requesting passage back to Earth for Detective Olivia Benson."

After a brief pause, a male technician said, "Acknowledged, Colonel. Detective Benson may return at any time."

Sam released Olivia's hand and stepped away from her. "Don't forget me," Sam said when Olivia was halfway up the ramp.

Olivia turned, backlit by the bright blue event horizon that would carry her across the galaxy. "Samantha Carter, I would have to die first."

Sam lifted a hand in farewell and watched until Olivia was gone. The Stargate disengaged and Sam walked back to the dialing computer. This time, she used the Pegasus controls and dialed Atlantis. She wiped her cheeks with the back of her hand. "Colonel Carter requesting passage back to Atlantis."

"Confirmed, Colonel," a different technician said. "Whenever you're ready."

Sam took a breath, let it out slowly and walked up the ramp to return to her city by the sea.


	4. The Sentries of the Heart

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Olivia returns to New York after her brief time in Atlantis, but can't stop thinking about what she's learned. Meanwhile, in Atlantis, Sam makes a frightening discovery that may put Earth - and Olivia - at risk.

At night, in the dark, it was harder to deny the draw. Olivia climbed out of bed, wrapped a robe around herself and walked to the balcony of her temporary lover's apartment. She wasn't sure why she had agreed to come back to this place; she hadn't been particularly drunk and she had never considered sleeping with her before, but something about the night had made it seem okay. Had made it seem like the right decision.

The wind picked up the bangs of her freshly-cut hair and pushed it away from her face. She lifted her chin and looked at the sky. There were no clouds, just a thin layer of pollution that made the night impossibly purple. She could see precious few stars this deep in the city, but there were a couple, burning stubbornly bright. The apartment across from her seemed to have a halo of blue light, bleed-over from the next street's security lights most likely. 

She wondered which direction the Pegasus Galaxy was. She had no point of reference. Did the Stargate go out, toward Pluto, or back toward the sun? Was Sam to the north, east, west...? Space was infinite, stretching out in all directions, so she might have been southwest or northeast. There was absolutely no way for her to tell. No way for her to even begin to track.

Something rustled in the bedroom behind her and a soft voice whispered, "Liv? What are you doing out there?"

Olivia turned. Casey's hair was a mess, her eyes half-lidded as she tried to focus. "Nothing," she said. "Just trying to find some stars."

Casey stepped closer to the door and craned her neck up. "Good luck. Did you find any?"

Olivia smiled sadly. "Not the right one."

Casey extended her hand and Olivia took it. She allowed herself to be drawn back into the apartment and shut the door on the night.

#

_The long, brown hair swam in the air like ribbons on a windy day. But they were stationary, frozen until Sam's hands swept them aside. The arched eyebrow, the Cupid's-bow of her upper lip. Sam kissed along her jaw and they twisted in the air. Olivia's blouse hung in the air behind them like the Invisible Man._

_They were both naked, Olivia's legs wrapped around Sam's body as they twisted and spun through Midway Station. Sam kissed Olivia's eyelids and put her hand out against the wall. They floated safely to the ground and Olivia settled on Sam's lap. They were both weightless, but clinging to each other so they wouldn't separate._

_Olivia pushed Sam's hair out of her face and smiled at her. "This didn't really happen," she whispered. "Aliens and galaxies and... having sex in a weightless space station. It didn't really happen. Right?"_

_Sam kissed Olivia gently and, when she pulled back, she said, "You can believe as much of it as you want to."_

_Olivia traced her hands down Sam's face and said, "This part."_

_"Any other parts?" Sam asked. "In particular?"_

_"I can probably think of a couple," Olivia said. She smiled and bowed her head to kiss Sam's neck. Sam released her grip and pushed her palm against the wall. They went spinning again._

Sam woke from the dream with her hair matted to her cheeks and forehead from sweat, her blankets kicked down around her ankles. Atlantis was suffering from a heat wave, and the ancient air conditioning mechanism happened to fail around the same time. She had already shed her usual pajamas for a pair of boxer shorts and a thin tank-top, but it wasn't helping much.

She sat up and pushed the blankets away. She had a headache from too much stress and not enough sleep. She wanted to get away from the base. All the years working at the SGC when she had taken quarters down the hall from her lab just so she would be within walking distance of her work should inspiration have struck, and now all she wanted was a house, with a nice warm bed that had a nice pillow shaped to her head.

And someone waiting to welcome her home with a kiss and a "How was your day?"

She had had that once. A long time ago. She closed her eyes and pictured Janet. Sometimes she herself had only been home for five minutes when Sam came in the door. She would greet Sam in the entry hall in her stocking feet, put her hands on Sam's shoulders and pull her down for a kiss. "How was your day?" she would whisper. 

Sam ached for those moments, with Janet in her rumpled uniform, the top button of the blouse finally undone, talking about whatever experiment they were stumped on or what alien race they had met. Sometimes Janet would rant about some patient who was being stubborn, or budget restraints that were tightening their purse strings in the infirmary. But it always ended the same way; on the couch, Janet curled in Sam's lap, both of them listening to the other's heartbeat. 

_Something only one of us still has,_ Sam thought with a pang. She stood up and went to the balcony. The doors were open in the hopes the sea air would help cool her off. She leaned against the railing and thought about Olivia Benson. She was so strong, like Janet. So easy to pretend Olivia _was_ Janet. There had been times, holding her, that Sam could close her eyes and pretend for a split second that it was really true, that Janet was alive. But she never pretended long; it wasn't fair to Olivia. And it wasn't fair to herself to keep pining for someone who was literally billions of miles away. Even if they did somehow work out a way to be together, they would never get to see each other. Her leave-time from Atlantis, if she ever did take it, wouldn't allow her to visit New York. 

Sam closed the balcony doors - they weren't helping anyway - and went back to bed. She stripped off her sweat-stained clothes and lay down naked. She pushed her hair out of her face, checked the clock and threw her arm across her eyes as she tried to push Olivia Benson out of her mind.

#

Ronon Dex was Satedan, a warrior who had spent the majority of his life either fighting the Wraith or imprisoned by them, forced to run so they could hunt him for sport. In his brief time on Atlantis, Sam knew that he had pushed himself to the very limits of human endurance on several occasions. So when she got word that he was in the infirmary with a case of the sniffles, it was something she had to see to believe.

She walked into the infirmary and smiled at the warrior. "Ronon. Everything all right?"

"Fine," he said. He sniffed and ran his tattooed wrist under his nose. "Relatively speaking."

Sam winced, looked around until she found a medical cart, and plucked a Kleenex from it. She held it out to him and he stared at it, then her. Finally, he took it and swabbed under his nose.

Dr. Keller approached, a barely-contained smile playing on her features. In deference to the heat, Sam had decided to allow a little leeway with the dress code. Keller's jacket had been abandoned in her office and she wore a sleeveless turtleneck, unzipped to mid-chest. Sam herself wore a black blouse that was low-cut enough to allow a bit of ventilation, but not so much so that she was in danger of falling out of it. Keller nodded a greeting. "Colonel Carter."

"Doctor." She put on her most-serious face and nodded at Ronon. "Tell me. Is it fatal?"

"It's a cold," Keller said. "Kind of ironic that he would catch it now, given that it's been over a hundred degrees for three days, but it's been known to happen. I've prescribed lots of fluid and bed rest."

Ronon said, "Yeah, about that. I don't like orange juice. It's always got... things in it."

"That would be pulp," Keller said.

"Your people need to figure out a way to get that crap out of it, because it's disgusting."

Sam smiled and said, "I'll make sure the mess hall has some pulp-free orange juice in the next shipment from Earth. Get well soon, Ronon."

"The sooner," he sniffled, "the better."

Sam said good-bye to Dr. Keller and left the infirmary. She was halfway to the elevator when Rodney McKay called out to her from down the hall. "Colonel Carter! Just the person I was looking for."

"Rodney," she said. She slowed and let him catch up with her. He was carrying a flat tablet computer, making a few calculations as he approached her. "Any progress on getting the air conditioning fixed?"

"Hmm? Oh, no, I got, ah, Zelenka's team working on that. I have much bigger fish to fry. I was wondering if you would go over these readings I took on the replicator fleet." 

Sam raised her eyebrows. "You want me to check your homework?"

He stared at her, exasperated, and held out the computer. "I just want to make sure I've extrapolated it right. It won't do us any good to know where the replicator ships were five days ago. I'm asking you because you're the only person on this base who is even close to understanding how this sort of thing works."

Sam took the tablet and said, "Okay, I'll give it a look." She tucked it under her arm and started to walk off. She noticed McKay was following her and stopped. "What, you meant _now_? McKay, I'm..."

"It'll just take you a second!"

She rolled her eyes and looked at the tablet. She checked his calculations, did a little math on her own to make sure what he had come up with was correct and then held the tablet out to him. "Looks good to me." 

"Thank you. It, uh, means a lot."

"You're not going to have me double-checking all of your work now that I'm here, are you?"

"What? No. Of course not. Only the big, galaxy-threatening projects where it's important to make sure every miniscule calculation is entirely correct."

"Ahh. So only every _other_ project."

McKay smirked and held up the tablet. "Thank you for the help."

Sam shook her head and continued walking to the elevator. She had just hit the call button when a nurse called out to her. "Colonel? I think you need to come back in here."

Sam hurried to meet the nurse. "What happened?" But as she hurried into the room behind the nurse, it became apparent what the problem was. Ronon was standing up with both hands wrapped around the legs of a medical cart. Two SFs with weapons drawn flanked him on the opposite side. Keller was pinned between the irate Satedan and the wall. Sam said, "Ronon!"

He turned to look at her and she saw raw hatred in his eyes. "They tried to make me bleed."

"We wanted a blood sample," the nurse said sotto voce. "Just to make sure this is a regular, run-of-the-mill cold. It was nothing! He agreed, but once we pricked him with the needle, he went off."

Sam stepped closer. "Ronon, do you know where you are?"

"Atlantis," he growled. "You're Colonel Carter, she's Dr. Keller, and she and her nurse were trying to bleed me."

Sam glanced at Keller. So apparently he hadn't lost his memory and he didn't seem to be suffering from hallucinations. "Ronon, I think you're having what we call a paranoid delusion. Just take it easy and..."

Ronon swung the cart around and nearly took Sam out with it. "You're on their side," he growled. He shoved the cart forward and Sam had to jump to one side to avoid it. The cart crashed to the wall and Sam held up both hands. "Okay. Okay, they're not going to take your blood." She looked at the orderly and waved her away. "Dr. Keller doesn't need any blood. Right?"

"Right," Keller said. 

Ronon swallowed and eyed the SFs. 

"Guys," Sam said. She waved them away and they reluctantly lowered their weapons.

Ronon straightened slowly and looked at her. He sniffled and said, "Thanks." He sniffed, rubbed the shredded Kleenex under his nose and walked casually from the room. 

Keller moved to one side as he passed, watching him warily until he was gone. She finally relaxed and walked to Sam's side. "That was not something I want to relive any time soon."

Sam touched her earpiece. "This is Colonel Carter to Major Lorne."

"Lorne here."

"We're going to need a security team on Ronon's quarters effectively immediately."

"Anything we should be concerned about?"

"No. He's not to be treated as a prisoner. Just... keep an eye on him until further notice."

There was a pause before Lorne said, "Yes, ma'am."

Sam looked at Keller and said, "You got some readings before he attacked, right?" Keller nodded. "Good. Let's see if we can find out what prompted the attack. I don't want anyone else accidentally setting him off."

#

Olivia and Elliot raised their badges to the secretary, not slowing as they rounded her desk. "He in there?" Elliot asked, pointing into the office.

"Yes, but... excuse me, Detectives! You can't..."

Olivia pushed the office door open. David Harrison looked up and his clients turned in their seats to see who was interrupting their consultation. "Excuse me," Harrison said. "You can't just barge in here in the middle of--"

"Oh, I'm pretty sure we can," Elliot said. He smiled at the clients. "Afternoon, folks. You might wanna step outside. We need to talk to your financial planner about his affinity for little girls."

Harrison's face turned deep red. "How _dare_ you?" He grabbed the phone, but Olivia took it out of his hand and hung it up. 

"Stand up, please, Mr. Harrison. You're under arrest for the murder of..."

"You have no evidence!" he shouted. "I am going to sue you... all of you! And I'll..."

Olivia got in his face. His breath smelled of onions and she had to resist the urge to rear back from him. "You'll what? You'll have our badges? I suppose you're close personal friends with the commissioner? We've heard it before, asshole. None of it matters. Because we have your DNA inside a little girl." She reached up and slapped him across the face. "You have no rights, you son of a bitch prick."

"Olivia," Elliot said.

Olivia smacked Harrison again and said, "You want to hit me back? Or is it only fun when they're defenseless? You want to try and take me? Huh? Or am I unattractive to you because I have breasts? Answer me!" She punched him in the stomach and he doubled over.

Elliot had rounded the desk and threaded his arms around Olivia's. He yanked her back, physically picking her up off the ground and spinning her around. "Get off me!" she hissed, flailing against him. He set her down and pushed her against the wall with one hand. She glared at him, eyes dark and baring her teeth. 

"What the hell are you doing?" Elliot said. "You want to get this thrown out of court on an excessive force complaint?"

Olivia scoffed. " _You're_ telling me about excessive force?" She shoved his hand away and glared at Harrison. "Be glad he was here, you prick," she growled as she stalked out of the office. Elliot watched her go, then pulled out his cuffs and motioned for Harrison to stand up.

#

By mid-afternoon, security had received five more claims of unusually antagonistic behavior. Two of the scientists on Zelenka's team had come to blows regarding whether an access shaft door needed to be pushed or pulled to open. Sam called Sheppard, McKay and Teyla into her office and said, "This can't just be a response to the heat," Sam said. 

"I don't know," Sheppard said. "In Afghanistan, a guy almost took our CO's head off because he was shuffling cards too loudly. Heat can do weird things to people."

"Still," Sam said, "I find it hard to believe everyone is cracking now, today. It's been sweltering for a week. Everyone just hit the same tipping point at the exact same time?"

McKay said, "It's been known to happen. A, uh, settlement of this size, in terms of averages and..."

Teyla held up a hand to cut him off. "Ronon's outburst seems to eliminate the possibility of heat as a cause. I do not believe he has complained of the heat once..."

"That's true," Sheppard said. "I don't think he's even broken a sweat all week."

Sam said, "I'm tempted to offer leave for anyone who needs a break from the heat, a nice trip to a temperate planet... but if this is an infection of some sort, I don't want to risk spreading it to the galaxy at large. I'll have Keller run some more tests on the blood from infected people and see if she can't find a link. If anyone on any of your teams exhibits a quicker-than-average temper, send them to the infirmary immediately. Even if you have to knock them out and drag them there."

#

Sam dipped a towel into the now-tepid water, wrung it out and dabbed it against her chest. She had gotten the water icy cold from the bathtub but it hadn't stayed that way long. Her neck, chest and shoulders were all wet, but it wasn't doing very much to combat the heat. She was about to give in and take another bath when her door chimed. She groaned and grabbed her robe off the back of the chair as she stood. "Who is it?"

"Dr. Keller."

Sam tied the robe and opened the door. "Jennifer. This is a surprise."

Keller smiled and looked down at Sam's robe. "Oh. Oh, you were going to bed..."

"No, Jennifer, it's all right. I was just trying to cool off. What's on your mind?"

"Can I come in?" Sam nodded and stepped side. Keller walked into the room and Sam closed the door behind her. Keller looked at the basin of water and moved closer to the window. "I just wanted to thank you for... for earlier. It was really tense there for a minute, with Ronon..."

Sam said, "It's no problem."

"No, it is a problem. I should have been able to stand up for myself. If you hadn't been there..."

Sam stepped forward and put her hands on Keller's shoulders. "You need to stop second-guessing yourself, Jennifer. You're a fantastic doctor. You deserve your position. You don't need anyone to tell you that you deserve it. You earned it."

"I know. But, like someone brilliant once said to me, a day like this, it doesn't hurt to hear it."

Sam smiled. "I think that same person said that some days are worse than others. Right?"

Keller sucked her bottom lip and said, "So, um... no second-guessing."

"Right. Just have faith in yourself and your abilities and--"

The rest of her advice was cut off by Keller kissing her. Sam kept her eyes open, her hands on Keller's shoulders until the kiss broke. When they separated, Keller blinked at her and said, "No second-guessing."

"Jennifer, I meant..."

"I know. I just had to do that, or I would have regretted it." She smiled and said, "I'll go now."

She started to step away, but Sam slid her hand down to grip the doctor's wrist. "Wait," she said softly. "Don't." Keller moaned as Sam pulled her close again. They kissed hard, Sam's hands going to the back of Keller's head. Their tongues touched and Sam closed her eyes. Keller was young, but as Vala had once so tactfully put it... the best way to get over someone is to get under someone.

Of course, with Keller, Sam planned to spend the majority of her time on top. But she figured the saying had some wiggle room. 

Sam pulled the zipper of Keller's top down and slid her hand inside, along the warm flesh. Keller was sweating from the heat and her skin was slick. Sam broke the kiss and looked into her eyes. "Stay the night."

"I was plannin' on it," Keller breathed.

Sam pulled Keller to her and they fell to the bed.

#

Olivia returned the phone to the charger, but left her hand cupped around the back of it. She lifted it, started to dial the number she had been given, disconnected and put the phone down. _"If you ever need anything," Sam said, pressing the card into Olivia's palm. Between two galaxies. "Call this number. They'll know how to get in touch with me." And then she had cupped Olivia's face and kissed her hard, a kiss that would sustain them across a billion miles, as the impossible thing behind them sparked to life._

"I can't," Olivia whispered. There were tears in her eyes as she finally released the phone. She saw Lauren's gun explode, saw her die all over again and squeezed her eyes shut. Then she picked up the phone, charger and all, and hurled it against the far wall.

#

Sam reported to the infirmary the first thing the next morning. "What happened?" she asked. Keller wore a light purple wrap-around top and Sam glanced momentarily at her arms as the doctor picked up a chart. 

Keller cast a coy look in Sam's direction before she began to read. "Major Lorne's team reported another eighteen attacks during the night."

"My God," Sam sighed.

"It gets worse," Keller said, leading Sam to a trio of beds. "Dr. Mikhail, Major Kline and Major Dodson were all brought in with deep cuts on their inner thighs." She saw that Sam didn't get the significance, so she added, "Self-inflicted."

Sam blinked. "They were cutting themselves? How long?"

"Mikhail and Dodson, it started very recently. Major Kline, however, had several old scars. I believe she started as a teenager, stopped, and then started again not long ago."

"How long is not long ago?"

Keller said, "Yesterday. All three of them started cutting themselves... yesterday."

Sam closed her eyes and shook her head. "Have we found a link between the incidents?"

"No, ma'am. If it is some kind of weird neurological disease, it could have come from anywhere. It could have come from the mainland, for all we know. Dr. McKay is working on forming a connection."

"Like he doesn't have enough on his plate," Sam said. "Thank you, Doctor."

"You're welcome, Sam."

Sam hesitated and touched Keller's elbow. "That's not necessary. But..."

Keller smiled and ducked her chin slightly. 

Sam walked from the infirmary and went to the elevator. She rubbed her forehead and tried to focus on the problem at hand. People were having strange and drastic mood swings. There had to be some connecting force between them. Maybe they had all served on the same team at some point, maybe they had all examined the same piece of alien technology.

She arrived at the control room without remembering quite how she had gotten there. She walked toward her office but was stopped halfway by a comm call. "Dr. Zelenka to Colonel Carter."

"Carter here," Sam said. She stopped just in case his news would make her turn around and go back. "What have you found, Doctor?"

"I simply wanted to tell you to listen carefully for the next... three seconds." 

Sam frowned, and then the air around her seemed to stir. There was a stiff, cool breeze and she felt like she had just dropped into a freezer. Sam closed her eyes and smiled. "Radek, I don't care what Rodney says. You're a genius."

"What does he say?"

Sam could almost see the Czech scientist rising from a stooped position, shock and confusion on his face. She smiled and said, "Thank you, Radek. I'm sure this will calm the tempers that have been flaring lately. Excellent work."

"Thank you, Colonel."

Sam smiled at one of the Gate technicians and went into her office. Hopefully it was a sign things were going to start improving around the base.

#

Olivia's leg jumped as she stared at the far wall of her apartment. All the lights were off, the better to see the stars. She heard Cragen's voice: _"You need a little time. Take a breather."_ She felt Melinda's hand on her arm. She had stood in Agent Cooper's apartment for hours. Just staring. Standing until her legs wouldn't support her anymore. Everyone thought she was traumatized by seeing someone she cared about commit suicide. But that wasn't it. 

Of course, it was a part of it. She wasn't stone. But the truth was, she was losing control. Her mind was slipping. She had yelled at Munch when he coughed. Too loud, obnoxious, she was sure he didn't have to cough _that_ loudly. She had spent fifteen minutes in the shower that morning weeping, and she didn't know why. 

Casey knocked on the apartment door, then Elliot. She didn't answer either of them.

She just wanted to be alone. She wanted to sit in the dark, stare at her reflection in the windowpane and try to convince herself that she wouldn't turn out like Lauren Cooper.

#

The computer screen was lit up with several names - yellow and red - with bright white lines connecting them to each other. McKay angled it so that everyone in the briefing room could see. "Everyone have a good seat?" he asked. "There's no glare or..."

"Rodney," Sam said.

"Right." He cleared his throat and said, "Judging from the point of first outbreak, I have determined where and when the infection most likely began."

"The first outbreak being Ronon," Sheppard said.

McKay held up a finger. "Ah, the first _reported symptoms_ were Ronon's, yes. He said he felt weak and vulnerable when all he really had was a case of the sniffles. But those feelings were magnified to almost paralyzing levels. Just like the anger and depression that other people have been reporting. But we weren't taking into account people who had not yet reported to the infirmary. He just happened to be there when he went..." He glanced at the Satedan and cleared his throat, "...when, uh, when... he understandably overreacted just a teensy bit."

Ronon smirked.

"Who was the first outbreak?" Sam asked.

"Dr. Mikhail," Rodney said. The name lit up on the screen. "Also among the earliest complaints were Dr. Kavanagh, Major Greene and Lieutenant Sikes. They all pinpointed their first emotional outbursts hours before anyone else. So I searched the records and discovered they had all been off-world together for only one mission. Three months ago, they went to M64-771 to obtain... I don't know, rare alien beets or something like that. They found an abandoned Wraith laboratory. They checked it out, found nothing of interest, came home."

"With beets," Sheppard said.

"No, there were no beets," McKay said. "Beets was an example. It could have just as easily been asparagus or..."

"So that was the only mission the three men went on together?" Sam interrupted.

"Mm, yes," McKay said. "I took the liberty to extrapolate later reports... Mikhail had lunch with Tompkins, who sparred with Ronon... Lieutenant Sikes was temporarily loaned out to Major Lorne's team, which..."

Sam suddenly straightened in her chair. "Dr. Kavanagh was infected three months ago? What dates are we talking about here? I need to know exactly."

McKay said, "It's in your report."

Sam flipped open the report and scanned the dates. "Shit," she breathed. She stood up and hurried to the doors. "And everyone who came in contact with one of the people on that mission ended up infected?"

"Well, yes, and people who came in contact with those people and people who..."

Sam was already out of the briefing room, running across the landing to the control room. "Dial Earth!" she said. "Tell them we have a possible quarantine situation."

"What?" Sheppard said. "What quarantine? No one has gone back to Earth since..."

"Since Detective Benson left," McKay said.

"And she interrogated Dr. Kavanagh while she was here," Sam said. "The dates overlap. Olivia is infected."

McKay said, "Oh, this is so very not good..."

Sam ignored him and focused on the Stargate. Olivia being ill was bad enough... but it also meant that Sam herself was definitely infected as well.

#

Elliot met Casey halfway to Olivia's apartment with a cardboard container of Chinese. Casey had two cups of coffee and they smiled to each other. "Care package?" Elliot said.

Casey said, "I'm just hoping to get past the door. Maybe she'll smell this and weaken."

"Tough couple of days," Elliot said as he fell into step next to her. 

"Very tough," Casey said. "I'm trying to be there for her, but she keeps shutting me out. She..." Casey frowned and said, "What is that?"

Elliot looked up and saw a white van parked in front of Olivia's apartment. He was about to say it was just someone moving when the front door of the apartment opened and three men in Haz-Mat suits came out. Two of the men were on either side of Olivia, holding her arms, while the other one followed close behind. A mask covered the lower half of Olivia's face and she seemed to be in a daze as they walked her to the back of the van. 

"Hey!" Elliot dropped the Chinese and Casey dropped the coffee. They ran through the ensuing wave and Elliot's hand went to his gun. 

The men in the suits didn't pay any attention. They climbed into the front of the van, slammed their doors and the tires shrieked in protest as they pulled away from the curb. Elliot had his cell phone out and connected to 911 just as he reached the street. "This is Detective Elliot Stabler, Manhattan SVU, badge number 6-3-1-3, reporting a possible abduction... repeat..."

#

The steady drone of the engines woke her. Olivia was stretched out on a couch, her knees against her chest, and she had been covered by a hard plastic suit. She was wearing a helmet of some sort and breathing filtered air. She sat up with a gasp and looked around, frantic to find out where she was and who had taken her. She saw a large black man across the plane from her, watching her carefully. "You are awake," he said.

"What do you want? You... I know you..."

"Indeed. I am Teal'c, of Samantha Carter's team SG-1. We worked together long ago, I believe."

"Not that long ago," Olivia said. Even though he did look quite a bit older than she remembered. She looked around the plane. "Why am I here? Why am I in this suit?"

Teal'c - who had been introduced to her as Murray - said, "There has been an outbreak of a virus on Atlantis. The outbreak occurred while you were there. The incubation period is quite long, and it was believed you were infected."

"What kind of virus? Is it fatal?"

"Unknown," Teal'c said. "We have taken the liberty of observing those closest to you and they do not appear to have been infected. However, until we have identified the cause of the infection, Colonel Carter believed it best that we isolate you."

Olivia said, "In Atlantis?"

Teal'c looked at her. "No. There would be little point in taking you there. You will be housed at the SGC's infirmary until such time as..."

"I want to go to Atlantis," Olivia said. "When they do find a cure, it'll be best if I'm there, right?"

Teal'c seemed to be looking through her, searching her for the real motive. She pleaded with her eyes as best she could through a thick sheet of plastic, and he finally softened. "Perhaps you are correct. I will consult with Dr. Lam and General Landry on the situation."

Olivia closed her eyes in thanks and sagged against the back of the seat. She was going back to Atlantis. Back to Sam. The dark cloud that had been filling her world the past few weeks suddenly showed signs of a silver lining.

#

Due to the circumstances, they lifted the mandatory two-day waiting period between galaxies. Sam came down the steps to the Gate room just as Olivia came through the event horizon from Midway. They smiled to each other and Sam said, "See? Gets easier every time."

"I'm still a little nauseated," Olivia said. "Is that... could it be part of the illness?"

"There haven't been any physical complaints," Sam said as they started walking. "At least not so far. The only symptoms have been extreme mood swings."

Olivia said, "Well. Then I think I definitely have it."

They were well away from eavesdroppers, but Sam lowered her voice. "Has everything been okay?"

"No," Olivia said. "It hasn't."

"Do you want to talk about it?"

"Eventually," Olivia said. 

Sam clasped her hands behind her back and said, "I, um... I'm sort of seeing someone."

"Me, too," Olivia said.

"It's not serious," they said together. 

Olivia smiled. 

"I've miss--" 

"Colonel Carter."

Sam closed her eyes and touched her earpiece. "Go ahead."

"We have a situation, Colonel."

Sam looked at Olivia and silently invited her along. They went to the nearest elevator and rode to the infirmary. When they arrived, they found Keller's team huddled around a bed. Sam heard the whine of charging defibrillators and Keller called out to clear. When they reached the bed, they saw Captain Rheingold, a member of the German team, lying bare-chested on the bed. Keller zapped him again, his body lifted off the bed and then lay still once more.

Keller shook her head and said, "It's no good. We lost him. Time of death, 13:46." She stepped away from the bed and realized Sam had arrived. "He came in weeping. Five minutes later, he collapsed. We did what we could."

"He wasn't one of the early sufferers," Sam said.

"No," Keller said. "Apparently this disease doesn't kill in a set time frame." She finally looked at Olivia and said, "Detective Benton."

"Benson," Olivia corrected.

Sam said, "Olivia was here during the initial outbreak."

Keller nodded. "You'll need to be checked out. If you'll come this way..." 

Olivia looked at Sam, who nodded and said, "You can come find me in my office when you finish." She squeezed Olivia's hand and left the infirmary.

#

Sheppard put his hand up against the stone header of the doorway and ducked inside. He swept his gun to the left and right, using the light attached to make sure they were truly alone. 

The door was at the bottom of a stone staircase and led into a narrow hall filled with dust, cobwebs, rubble and random foliage debris. Sheppard's boots crushed ancient, dried leaves as he stepped into the hall. Teyla and McKay followed him, all three breathing heavily through their Darth Vader masks. "All right," Sheppard said. "McKay, check out down there. Teyla and I will..."

"Wait, wait, wait, wait. Why do I have to go alone?"

"McKay..."

"Well, it's not cowardice, it's just common sense! If I find something and I'm elbow-deep in it trying to find the answer to the mess we're in - once again, I might add! - then I can't really defend myself, can I?"

Sheppard stared at McKay and kept his voice even. "Fine. Teyla. You're with McKay."

"Thank you," McKay said. "I'm just... you know, you're more than capable of..."

"Go, Rodney," Sheppard said. "We'll meet back here in fifteen minutes." He turned and shook his head as he walked down the curving corridor. Most Wraith labs he had been in were more organic than this; built into the side of a mountain, covered with vines and looking like the "This Is Your Body" display at the Science Center than the mad scientist lair he was now exploring. 

He swept cobwebs out of his way with his hand and found a wide pentagonal room. There was a waist-high display in the center of the room, fronting a pedestal. He stepped up to the machine, placed his hand on the flat top and blinked up at McKay. He frowned. "I thought I told you to go the other way."

Teyla said, "There was a discharge of energy, and then you cried out."

Sheppard suddenly realized that he was lying on the floor. He looked down at himself, brushed his uniform off and said, "Oh. I touched that pedestal. I guess there was a built-up electrical charge. Help me up, please?"

Teyla and McKay each took a hand and helped him up. "Did you find anything?" he asked McKay.

"Depends on what you mean by 'anything.' I didn't find anything particularly germane to the virus on Atlantis, but I did find a lab with countless samples of..."

Sheppard waited for him to continue. "Of...?"

"Oh. It's just... you usually interrupt me about then. Um. Of local flora and fauna samples. I think whatever Wraith was using this lab was interested in maybe reverse engineering some of the aspects of the local animals for his own use. Say, the camouflage capabilities of a chameleon or the ability to leap tree to tree like a flying squirrel."

"Interesting," Sheppard said. He looked at the pedestal again and said, "I think we should check this place out."

"Really?" McKay said. "Oh. Well, um, we could call for a science team--"

"You're busy working on tracking the Replicator presence in this galaxy," Sheppard said calmly. "Ask Zelenka to take over. And warn him to be careful around that pedestal."

Teyla said, "John, are you sure you're all right?"

Sheppard nodded. "Fine. Come on. Let's keep looking around. I want to give Colonel Carter a full report on this place when we get back." He brushed himself off, making sure he got off all of the cobwebs and garbage that he had landed on. Teyla and McKay exchanged a look and followed him deeper into the building.

#

Olivia and Sam took their lunches from the commissary to Sam's quarters. Olivia set her tray on the desk and moved to the balcony. "Wow. I just realized I never got to see this place last time I was here."

"I noticed," Sam said. "It's why I remedied it as soon as possible this time." She put her hand on Olivia's shoulder and turned her around. "I missed you," she whispered as she pulled Olivia close for a kiss. Olivia slipped her hands inside Sam's open jacket and laced her fingers together in the small of her back.

"Do you know the best thing about what we got for lunch?"

Sam looked at their trays, as if refreshing her memory about what they had gotten; two sandwiches, an apple and an orange respectively, two pudding cups, and a banana for Sam. She said, "No..."

"It doesn't get cold if you don't eat it right away."

Sam smiled and kissed Olivia slowly. They moved to the bed and Sam eased Olivia down onto the mattress. Olivia spread her legs apart and moved her hands down to Sam's ass. Sam knelt and began to work the buttons of Olivia's blouse. When they parted, Olivia reached up and stroked Sam's hair out of her face. "You look good with long hair."

"So did you," Sam said.

Olivia rolled her eyes. "You're alone with that sentiment, I'm afraid."

Sam threaded her fingers through Olivia's hair. "Don't get me wrong, I like this, too. I'll just have to find something else to grab on to later."

They kissed again and Sam finished opening Olivia's blouse. She swept it off Olivia's shoulders and broke the kiss, bowing her head to run her tongue along Olivia's throat and shoulder. She pushed the bra strap out of her way and closed her lips around the tanned flesh. Olivia pushed Sam's jacket off, letting it fall to the ground, and cupped the back of her head as Sam moved down to the swell of Olivia's breast.

Sam ran her tongue along the lace edge of Olivia's bra and then moved lower, finding her nipple through the underwear and circling it slowly with her tongue. She nipped at it with her teeth and cupped the other breast with her hand. Olivia arched her back and dug her fingers into Sam's hair. Sam pressed a kiss to Olivia's cleavage and looked up at her. Olivia leaned back and reached behind her back to undo her bra. Her breasts fell free and Sam lunged. She closed her lips around one bare nipple and pinched the other. 

Olivia couldn't wait anymore; she grabbed a handful of Sam's blouse and yanked it up. Sam leaned back and lifted both arms, letting Olivia strip the shirt off. They kissed again as Olivia pushed her hand into Sam's bra. She pinched the nipple between her thumb and forefinger and Sam whimpered into Olivia's mouth. "Yeah... like that..." Sam sighed. She reached down and undid the button of her trousers, pushing them down around her thighs and cupping herself with one hand.

Olivia looked down and said, "Hey, hey... that's my job..."

Sam leaned back and stood, letting her pants fall around her knees. "Well, get to work, then."

Olivia kissed Sam's stomach, then eased her boxer shorts down. She looked down at Sam's trimmed pubic hair and said, "Do you ever wear panties?"

"Special occasions," Sam said. "Dressing up."

"I'm not worth dressing up for?" Olivia said.

Sam cupped Olivia's face and said, "You make me so wet, I don't want to take the time to dress up." They kissed and Olivia slipped her hand between Sam's thighs. 

"Mmm," Olivia said. "I guess I do make you wet..."

Sam ran her hands through Olivia's hair and said, "Put your fingers inside of me..."

Olivia closed her eyes and kissed Sam's belly again, trailing her tongue up to find her breasts as she slipped two fingers along Sam's pussy lips. Sam said, "Oh, God, Olivia..." Olivia leaned back and looked down, watching as her fingers slipped easily into Sam. She curled her thumb back and brushed it across Sam's clit. 

After a few seconds of gentle thrusting, Sam pushed Olivia's hand away and stepped back. She scrambled to get out of her boots and bra, dumping them on the floor as she pushed Olivia back on the mattress. Olivia had her pants undone and Sam yanked them the rest of the way off. She still wore her panties, but Sam climbed on top of her before she could get them off. They kissed and Sam settled between Olivia's legs. Olivia bent her knees and planted them on either side of the mattress, burying herself against the pillow, smelling Sam's scent all around her.

They kissed as Sam pressed her hips hard against Olivia. Olivia groaned and pressed back hard, rocking against Sam's body as the blonde colonel fucked her. Sam cupped Olivia's breast, breathing hard and pinching the nipple as she thrust against Olivia. They were both making quiet, wanting noises as their bodies moved against each other, but it was Olivia who finally went over the edge. Sam had slipped her hand between their bodies, into Olivia's panties, and touched her clit. 

Olivia arched her back, her head against the pillow and her shoulders hovering in the air above the bed as she came. Sam circled her fingers around Olivia's clit and bent to kiss her lips, smothering Olivia's cries of orgasm. Olivia curled her tongue inside Sam's mouth, trying to taste as much of her as possible, and exhaled only when Sam finally pulled back.

They kissed slowly, gently, until Olivia pushed on Sam's shoulder. They rolled until Olivia was on top and Sam reached up, wrapping her hands around her headboard. Olivia perched over her like a predatory cat, eyes ablaze with hunger and lips curled back in an almost-evil smile. "How do you want it?"

Sam reached out with one hand and ran her thumb across Olivia's bottom lip. 

Olivia got the message. She slid down Sam's body, kissing whatever she could find, and eased Sam's thighs apart with both hands. She tensed her fingers a few times, giving Sam's tight muscles an impromptu massage before she lowered her head. Sam whimpered as Olivia's mouth touched her pussy lips. She kissed gently, eyes closed, and then opened her mouth and used her tongue to ease them apart. 

Olivia ducked her chin and pushed her tongue deeper. Sam twitched underneath her and Olivia tightened her hands on her thighs again. She made slow, gentle strokes and drew lazy lines with the tip of her tongue. She sucked Sam's hard clit, drawing it from the hood with her bottom lip and smiling when Sam cursed above her. 

"Ung... 'Livia," Sam gasped.

Olivia closed her eyes and thrust her tongue deeper into Sam's body. Sam cried out and twisted her body, the powerful muscles of her arms tight as she held onto the headboard. Olivia reluctantly pulled out, following the tremors in Sam's legs and thighs. She kissed Sam's hips, her stomach and her breasts before settling on top of her. 

Sam kissed the curve of Olivia's eyebrow and feathered her hair with her breath. "Olivia," Sam whispered.

"Yes, Sam?" Olivia said, her head resting on the flat of Sam's chest, hearing the thud of her heartbeat.

Sam thought about the unimaginable distance between New York and Pegasus. Hell, even if she was still based in Colorado it would have been an almost insurmountable distance. She kissed Olivia's forehead again and smothered what she had been about to say. "Nothing. It's not important."

#

Halfway through their lunch, Sam received a call that Sheppard's team was returning. Olivia put down her sandwich and said, "Should I come, too?"

"No, it's all right." Sam bent down and kissed Olivia's lips, which tasted of ham and mustard, and squeezed her shoulder through her robe. "You can take a shower if you'd like."

"Okay. I've never used an alien shower before."

"Don't expect too much. Only so many ways to make water fall out of the ceiling." She smiled and then bit her lip. "Although... use the massage feature."

"Oh, really?" Olivia said.

"God, yes. You may not need me anymore," Sam said. She smiled and cupped the back of Olivia's neck to kiss her again, long and hard. She straightened and picked up her jacket off the floor. "I'll be back as soon as I can." 

Olivia nodded and watched Sam leave. She looked back at her lunch, then stood and went to the balcony. It was strange; similar to looking out of Casey's window. Only this view was much more beautiful. The sun glinted off the water and from the glass towers. No pollution, no screaming of tires or car horns. No one on the ground below dying by degrees from their poison of choice. She inhaled the fresh, clean, alien air and held it in her lungs as long as she could before exhaling. 

She wondered if the Air Force would consider renting some of the towers out for summer getaways. 

#

"What did you find?" Sam asked as she came down the stairs to the Gate Room.

Teyla eyed her curiously, but McKay and Sheppard didn't seem to notice anything wrong. Sheppard said, "It was a great big stone castle. Mad scientist territory."

"Stone?" Sam said. "That's peculiar. Have the Wraith ever used anything other than their organic designs?"

McKay said, "Not that we've seen, but who knows. Maybe they managed to evolve into interior decorators when they woke up this time."

"We didn't find anything to explain the outbreak," Sheppard said, ignoring McKay's comment entirely. "There was a bizarre pedestal that knocked me out for a second when I touched it, but..."

"Get checked out," Sam said. "I don't want to take any chances."

"Yes, ma'am," Sheppard said. He and McKay headed off to their respective destinations. 

Teyla gestured for Sam to lead the way and they headed up the stairs. "Are you all right, Colonel Carter?"

Sam glanced at her. "Yes. Why?"

"It seems..." She examined Sam closely once again and then smiled. "Oh. I apologize."

"What?"

"Nothing."

Sam put a hand on Teyla's arm. "What?"

"Your skin appears to be flush, and your hair is a bit mussed." Sam put a hand to her hair without thinking about it. She thought she had done an okay job putting it up after she and Olivia had finally gotten out of bed. "I believed you might have been under the influence of the virus that is spreading through the base, but now I see that it was from a more... enjoyable endeavor."

Sam blushed deep crimson. "You can tell when someone has had..."

"Not always," Teyla said quickly. "However, there are occasionally signs..."

Sam cleared her throat and said, "Just between us."

"Of course," Teyla said. "I did not say anything the last time you accompanied Detective Benson to Midway Station." Sam's eyes widened. "You spent four days in a voluntary quarantine," Teyla explained. "It does not take an illiiat carver to figure it out."

"Illiiat carver," Sam said. "Is that anything like a rocket scientist?"

"I believe so," Teyla said. She touched Sam's arm and said, "I am just happy you have found someone. We all have... secrets we would rather not become common knowledge. Yours is safe with me."

"Thank you, Teyla." She turned to walk away and realized Teyla remained where she was, looking out the window. "Teyla? Was there something else?"

"I am not sure," she sighed. "After the incident where Colonel Sheppard was knocked unconscious, he seemed... reasonable."

"That's a bad thing?" Sam said.

Teyla shrugged. "He ignored several comments by Dr. McKay. He seemed remarkably casual about things that would usually, at the very least, cause a smart remark."

"Maybe he's just having an off day," Sam suggested. 

"Perhaps. I know that the virus causes extreme emotional outbursts, but..."

Sam nodded. "It could also have the opposite effect. I'll contact Dr. Keller and make sure she gives him the full works."

#

Keller rang the chime and then swept her hand over the pad without waiting for a reply. She wanted to surprise Sam, to show her how good they could be together. Her plan was to light a few candles, redress Sam's bed with silk sheets and show her what it could be like. She stepped into the room and hesitated when she saw the New York detective standing next to the bed. She was wearing her trousers and bra, but her shirt was still crumpled on the floor.

"Oh," Keller said. 

Detective Benson said, "Oh, Dr. Keller. Colonel Carter is letting me borrow her room until..."

"Yeah," Keller said. It wasn't hard to tell what was going on; the room reeked of sex. She toyed with the edge of the silk sheet and said, "I understand. No, it's okay. I'll... I'll just leave you alone to finish... getting dressed. I'm sorry I disturbed you." She turned on her heel and fled from the room. 

She held her emotions in check until she got to the infirmary. Sheppard was waiting for her when she rounded the corner. "Dr. Keller," he said. "I was knocked out off-world, some kind of strange alien pedestal. Colonel Carter told me to get it checked out."

At the mention of Sam's name, Keller sobbed. She brought a hand up to her mouth and squeezed her eyes shut as big, fat teardrops rolled down her face.

Sheppard looked at her for a moment and then turned to look around for help. "Can I get a hand out here?" he asked. He reached out and squeezed Keller's arm as he waited for someone to show up to help.

#

McKay's hair stood up from repeatedly raking his fingers through it. He jabbed his finger against the screen and growled when it didn't load fast enough. "Come on. Come on."

The Wraith half-turned and said, in his deep hiss of a voice, "Perhaps it is time for a break."

"Perhaps you need a break, did you ever think of that?"

The Wraith faced McKay fully. "Yes. A meal break would be... perfection. Are you volunteering, Dr. McKay?"

McKay's eyes widened and he said, "No, of course not. Get back to your side of the lab." The Wraith smirked and inhaled sharply through his nose. McKay got the sense that he had just been sniffed like a freshly-baked pie sitting on a windowsill. He turned his back to the Wraith and hunched over his tablet again. "Come on, work, you piece of crap..."

#

It was late when Sam got back to her quarters. There was a note on the table where she and Olivia had shared lunch. "Sam. Went exploring. I'll try to be back at 11. Olivia."

Sam smiled and put the note back on the table. She reached back and loosened her ponytail, letting it fall around her shoulders before she ruffled it. The day had been hectic, following reports of emotional outbursts from one corner of the city to the other. Scientists were coming to blows about experiment results, a security officer had nearly opening fire on someone for looking at him wrong, Keller breaking into tears in the infirmary... the base was turning into hormone central. Sam was just lucky Sheppard seemed immune to the entire thing. 

She had her shirt half-unbuttoned when the door chimed. She smiled and held the shirt closed with one hand as she went to answer it. "Did you find anything--"

Keller pressed the gun against Sam's throat with one hand, pushing her into the room. Her eyes were red from crying, her chin quaking as she followed Sam into the room.

"--interesting." Sam finished.

#

Sheppard stopped short when Ronon appeared in front of him. "Hey, Ronon. Everything okay?"

Ronon nodded and sniffled. "Yeah. I'm... I'm good. I was just thinking. You know. About that movie you made me watch last year. Brian's Song. Those guys, man. Those guys only had each other. And I was thinking about it. That's like you and me. You know? I got your back, man. And you got mine. I love you, man." He grabbed Sheppard and pulled him into a rough hug.

Sheppard exhaled sharply as Ronon squeezed the air out of him. Finally, he brought his hand up and patted Ronon on the back. "Right. You and me."

Ronon released him and wiped at his eyes. "Sorry. I just... I've been thinking about it a lot lately."

"Sounds like it."

Ronon nodded and stepped out of Sheppard's way. Sheppard gave him a wide berth and continued down the corridor.

#

Keller held the gun against Sam's chest, over her heart, and wiped her eyes with her free hand. "How could you do that to me? How could you just use me like that?"

"Jennifer," Sam said quietly. "We both knew it was a one-time thing. We talked about it. Remember?"

"You talked about it! You did! I just agreed because I didn't want you to think I was a psycho stalker or something. I thought I could convince you to change your mind."

Sam looked down at the gun. "Jennifer, we can talk about this. Just put the gun down..."

"No! She doesn't deserve you! She shouldn't even be here! What are you going to do when she leaves? It's not fair! I love you, Sam! I'm here. Why don't you see that? Why won't you love me like I love you?" She stepped forward and grabbed the back of Sam's head. Sam protested as Keller kissed her roughly, forcing her tongue into Sam's mouth.

Suddenly, the weight of the gun was off her chest. Sam gasped and looked down to see that Olivia had tackled Keller and had freed the gun from her grasp. She had Keller's arms pinned behind her back and looked up at Sam. "I cut my wanderings short," she said.

"Thank you," Sam said. "Take her..." Where? To the brig? To an isolated medical room? Keller was their chief of medicine. If they locked her up, their chances of finding a cure for the disease dropped dramatically. Sam rubbed her face and said, "Let her go."

"Are you sure?"

Sam nodded and Olivia released Keller's arms. Keller got up, her face streaked with tears. She glared at Sam and said, "I hate you. Go to hell."

Sam closed her eyes as Keller stormed past her. The doors swished closed and Sam bent to pick up the gun Keller had dropped. She touched her earwig and said, "Major Lorne..."

"Who is it this time?" Lorne asked, sounding more than a little perturbed.

Under the circumstances, insubordination could be tolerated. "Dr. Keller. She just threatened me with a gun."

"We're on it."

"Thank you, Evan," Sam said. She unhooked the earpiece and dropped it on the table next to the gun. Finally, she looked up into Olivia's eyes.

"I guess it was serious. The person you were seeing."

"For one of us," Sam said. "Apparently so."

Olivia looked down at Sam's unbuttoned shirt. "Are you all right?"

Sam nodded. "Yeah. I did that myself. All she did was kiss me."

"Not just that," Olivia said. "I heard a little of what she said through the door. Her emotions may be running rampant right now, but she does have a point. She cares a lot about you. When this is all said and done, she'll be back to normal and I'll be back in New York."

"You don't have to be," Sam said.

"I'm a cop, Sam. There's nothing for me to do here."

Sam said, "We always have a need for security. As you just saw for yourself." She closed the distance between them and touched Olivia's cheek. "You don't have to answer now. When all this insanity is said and done, I want you to consider it. You'd be an asset here. The Air Force would be lucky to have someone of your skill here. And I would love having you here."

"The Air Force would be okay with you requesting they give your lover a job?"

"They don't have to know."

"They'll probably suspect," Olivia said. 

Sam lowered her head. "It wouldn't take an illiiat carver to figure it out."

"What?"

"Nothing."

Olivia laced her fingers together behind Sam's head and pressed their foreheads together. "You could come to New York. Be a civilian for once in your life."

Sam closed her eyes. "I was given command of the most important outpost in two galaxies less than a year ago. If I walked out now, that might be grounds for a dishonorable discharge."

Olivia smiled. 

"Besides. I don't know if I can stand to be a civilian. Knowing everything that's out here..."

"I know how you feel. Since I came here last time, it was all I could think about. The stars, other planets and galaxies... It scares me and thrills me at the same time. You know?"

"I know," Sam said softly.

"So what can we do? Send an email every month or so? Send pictures?"

Sam shook her head and kissed Olivia's lips, her cheek and her neck. Olivia buried her face in Sam's neck and they embraced. Sam whispered, "I tried so hard not to fall in love with you."

"Then we're both failures," Olivia said. 

Sam pulled back and kissed Olivia's tears away. Then she kissed her lips and softened her grip on Olivia's shoulders. Olivia moved her hands between their bodies, finding the last few buttons of Sam's blouse and undoing them slowly. She pushed Sam's shirt off, draped it across the chair and took Sam's hand. They walked to the bed and Sam laid down, drawing Olivia to her. Olivia rested on top of Sam and they kissed, eyes closed and hands exploring. 

Olivia sat up to take off her blouse and bra, and Sam unhooked her own bra. Olivia put her head on Sam's chest to listen to her heart again. "Those who fight monsters should make damn sure they don't become one."

"What?" Sam said softly, her fingers smoothing Olivia's hair away from her temples.

"It was... someone's last words. She killed herself." Her tears slipped free and landed on Sam's chest. "I watched her shoot herself in the head. Five feet away from me."

"You're not a monster, Liv," Sam whispered. "You stop the monsters."

"How many times can I do it? Save a raped woman from some hideous torture machine, or watch the ME examine the body of a raped five-year-old girl? This virus just makes our emotions stronger, it doesn't create them. I am this angry. I do feel this helpless sometimes. And sometimes I worry that I'm heading for that edge, and the ground is falling away beneath my feet. It scares me, Sam. What I might be becoming."

Sam kissed the top of Olivia's head and said, "Look at me." Olivia lifted her head and Sam kissed her lips. Sam moved her lips to Olivia's ear and whispered, "You'll always have a safe harbor here."

Olivia closed her eyes and sobbed. She pulled back and kissed Sam's lips. "Make love to me, please?"

Sam brushed away Olivia's tears and slowly undressed her. Olivia did the same for Sam and they pressed against each other without urgency. Olivia kept her eyes open as she touched Sam, their arms crossed as Sam returned the favor, slowly fingering Olivia. They kissed and Olivia sighed through her orgasm. "Sam," she whispered.

"I love you, Olivia," Sam said. The words finally out, she wrapped her free arm around Olivia's waist and came against her fingers. 

Olivia kissed Sam's lips and finally closed her eyes. She wrapped herself in the warmth of Sam's body and fell asleep as she felt Sam draw the blankets up over her. 

#

Teyla hesitated, then lowered herself into the seat across from Sheppard. "Hello, John. How are you today?"

"Fine," he said as he munched on an apple slice. He looked around the commissary and said, "I'm glad Colonel Carter suspended normal Stargate operations."

"I agree. It would be unwise to spread... whatever this is... to our allies."

"Right," he said. "But I meant it wouldn't be wise to have us out there in the thick of things with our emotions on our sleeves."

Teyla watched him carefully. "True. However, you wouldn't have that problem, would you?"

He shrugged. "I'm not sick."

"No. No, you're not. John... I was talking with Rodney earlier and he said the most bizarre thing. He claimed Canadian football was superior to its American counterpart."

Sheppard shrugged. "The argument has its merits."

"He also claims that Johnny Cash was a hack musician who stole everything he did from... blues musicians?"

Sheppard picked up another apple slice. "Influence can come from anywhere."

Teyla leaned back in her chair. "Really."

"Although the 'hack' comment seems like a blatant attempt to raise my ire. I don't appreciate it, but Rodney is certainly entitled to his opinion."

"Ah. Interesting theory, John."

He nodded and gestured at his tray. "I'm going to bed. Would you like the pudding?"

"That is all right."

"Sure? It's just going to go in the trash."

She took the pudding and said, "Very well. Thank you, John."

"My pleasure."

Teyla watched him walk across the commissary and nervous tapped her finger against the foil top of the pudding.

#

Sam woke when Olivia shifted, and she realized her earpiece was chiming. She eased herself away from Olivia, kissed her shoulder and walked naked across the room. She hooked the earpiece on and softly said, "Colonel Carter."

"I apologize," Teyla said. "I woke you."

"It's all right," Sam assured her. She started gathering her clothes. "What's up?"

"I'm concerned about Colonel Sheppard. In the commissary, I attempted to anger him with several loaded comments about American football and Johnny Cash. He did not show the slightest trace of anger."

Sam frowned and zipped her trousers. "That's odd."

"It seems to have started at the moment he encountered the device on M64-771. I believe he is affected, but suffering the exact opposite effect as everyone else."

"It's an interesting theory," Sam said. "Where are you? I'll contact Sheppard and Dr. Keller and meet you there." 

"I am currently on my way to your office in Stargate operations."

"Good. We'll meet there in twenty minutes." She disconnected the earpiece and turned to see Olivia watching her. "Hi. There's..."

Olivia said, "I heard. It's okay. Usually it's me running out in the middle of the night."

Sam bent down and kissed Olivia's lips. "I'll try not to be too long."

Olivia hooked her hand in Sam's blouse. "I heard you mention calling Dr. Keller. Will you be all right?"

Sam nodded. "It'll be fine. Go back to sleep."

"Okay. Be safe."

Sam stopped at the door and turned back to watch Olivia pull the blankets up. After the hurt of Janet's death, she thought she would be happy to be alone. But a warm body waiting in her bed was definitely something she could get used to again. She forced herself to turn away and left the room, touching her earpiece to call Sheppard.

#

"Sorry to wake you, John," she said as she entered her office. 

Sheppard shrugged. "You wouldn't have if it weren't important."

Sam glanced at Teyla as she sat. "Right. Well, I just wanted to talk about the incident off-world. It seems to me you showed an egregious lack of safety when you touched the artifact. You could have endangered your entire team. So, as of this moment, you are busted back down to the rank of Captain."

"If you think that's the best course of action."

Keller walked in, flanked by her security team, and glared at Sam. "What." Her eyes were red-rimmed.

Sam shifted in her seat and gestured at Sheppard. "The Colonel needs to be isolated."

"Why don't you just have him followed? Like you did with me."

Sam slumped her shoulders. "Jennifer, don't..."

"Don't what? Make a scene? You fuck me and then throw me away like last week's garbage." Sheppard did look interested at that, proving he hadn't been replaced by a robot. "Why should I do anything you say?"

"Because I'm your commanding officer and this is a goddamn order. Am I making myself clear, Dr. Keller?"

Keller looked away.

"And if you ever bring up my personal life in a public setting again, I will have you sent back to Earth where you will be assigned to the coldest, loneliest outpost imaginable. I've done it before. Just ask McKay. Am I clear, Dr. Keller?"

Keller pursed her lips.

"Am I _clear_ , Dr. Keller."

"Crystal."

"Then take Colonel Sheppard to an isolation room immediately."

Keller turned to Sheppard, who stood and faced Carter. "So I'm not busted back to Captain?"

"No," Sam said. "I think you're infected by a different strain of the virus that's taken over this base. Unlike everyone else, you aren't showing any emotions whatsoever."

Sheppard looked down and nodded. "Huh. I hadn't noticed."

Sam stood and watched Keller walk out with Sheppard. She looked at Teyla and said, "Wake up McKay and Zelenka. Go back to M64-771 and check out the pedestal Colonel Sheppard touched."

Teyla nodded and left the office. Sam dropped into her chair and rubbed her forehead. So much for being fine. 

#

Zelenka pushed his glasses up and looked at Teyla, then looked across the room at McKay. To Teyla, he asked, "He, um... looked at this, yes?"

"Briefly," Teyla said.

Zelenka grinned and muttered something in Czech. It was still daylight on the planet, so weak light was filtering into the room from slits high in the stone wall. Zelenka had the pedestal open and had just finished examining the interior. "Oh, Rodney," he called in a sing-song voice.

"Yes, what?" McKay said. He was at the wall, searching for a hidden compartment that could house a power supply.

"This device is not Wraith design."

McKay turned. "What? No, of course it is. Mikhail checked it out."

Zelenka scoffed. "Well, if Miss-Nothing Mikhail checked it out..."

"What did you find?" McKay asked, sounding more exasperated than usual. Slightly more, anyway. He walked over and crouched next to the machine. "Oh..."

"What is it?" Teyla said.

McKay looked at the pedestal again, as if it had changed in the past three seconds. "It's Ancient. This place was designed by the Ancients."

Teyla scanned the room. "It does not appear..."

"No, no, they must have been hiding it or something... no, but the interior is _definitely_ Ancient. Which I would have caught if I had taken the time to open it and..."

"Sure you would have, Rodney," Zelenka said. 

McKay glared at him. "I've also been suffering from a _disease_ and trying to work with a Wraith to ensure we don't get obliterated by the Replicators..."

"Sure, sure," Zelenka said. He patted Rodney's arm. "We all have dry spells occasionally."

"Yes, you call yours the twenty-first century."

"There is no need to be snippy..."

"Gentlemen!" Teyla snapped. They quieted. "Can the effects of the machine be reversed?"

McKay and Zelenka looked at each other, then looked into the machine. "Sure. I mean... why make a machine that's effects couldn't be reversed?"

"Then perhaps your time would be better spent attempting to discover how to achieve that."

McKay and Zelenka both said, "Right," and went to work.

#

Sam stood at the door of the commissary, watching as McKay and the SFs moved through the room. They would occasionally pat someone on the shoulder, shake a hand or just brush by somebody. Dr. Keller walked up and said, "The cure is being spread as we speak. I can't tell you how easy it is to cure a disease just by touching them."

"I've seen it before, with Ancient technology. I'm just glad they were consistent in their cures."

Keller nodded and looked down at her feet. "Colonel..."

"You don't have to say it."

"I should be court-martialed. Or... the civilian equivalent. It could cause problems for you if..."

Sam said, "No. Teyla and Sheppard are being discreet. The SFs know not to say anything. Don't ask, don't tell and all that. I'm more concerned about you."

Keller shook her head. "The night we spent together was great, don't get me wrong. But I never saw it as anything other than what it was. There may have been some lingering feelings that the virus brought to the forefront, but don't worry. I'm happy with seeing it for what it was."

Sam nodded. "Thank you. I am sorry, though, Jennifer. You deserve someone..."

"Right. And so do you. I saw you with Detective Benson." She smiled. "I can't compete with that."

Sam ducked her chin and said, "We're not doing a very good job hiding it, are we?"

"I doubt anyone out here cares. Major Lorne being gay is pretty widely known. No one cares. Out here on the edge of reality, you take what you can get."

Sam nodded. "I hope you find someone, Jennifer, I really do."

Keller said, "Me too."

Sam said, "There's one thing you said that didn't make much sense to me. You said that Olivia shouldn't even be here."

"Oh." Keller looked ashamed. "I took a sample of her blood when she first arrived on the base. I never told you the results because I was jealous of how much time you were spending with her. Olivia was never infected with the virus."

"Are you sure?"

Keller nodded. "I reran the test once I was myself again. She's totally clear."

Sam thought back to Olivia's comments, about her depression and quick temper. Then she thought about the suicide Olivia had seen. Apparently it had affected her more than she thought. "Thank you, Jennifer."

"Of course, after spending all this time on the base, there's a chance she could have picked up the illness while she was here. I'll leave it to you to administer the cure. You know you just have to touch her _once_ , right?"

"Skin to skin," Sam nodded. She raised an eyebrow and added, "Any skin will work, right?"

Keller laughed, "I'll be in the infirmary if you need any help."

"You mean like a threesome?"

"Good-bye, Colonel Carter," Keller said. 

Sam watched her go with a smile and turned back as McKay walked over to her. "Everyone in the room has been touched... a comment which makes my skin crawl just thinking about it... but the cure is spreading as we speak."

"Excellent. Thank you, Rodney. Have you and Zelenka been able to figure out why the Ancients had an... emoter?"

"That's what we're calling it?" Sam shrugged. McKay sighed. "Well, I don't know how many Ancients you've met... I mean, I know that one lived in your house for a while and you guys kind of had a..."

"Rodney."

He pressed his lips together. "Yes, well, we've met more than a few here in Pegasus. Their one identifying trait is that they aren't exactly the most emotive people you've ever met. Kind of sticks in the mud."

Sam thought back to her experience and raised an eyebrow. "Kind of wooden."

"Yes. Well. The, ah, pedestal that Colonel Sheppard activated was a way for them to remove their worse emotions. Anger, hatred, disappointment... they were getting their asses kicked by the Wraith, they had the Replicator experiment blowing up in their faces... they needed a way to step back and be objective in their fight."

"So why did it backfire?"

"Have you ever seen Serenity? Joss Whedon movie? Based on a..." Sam stared at him. "No? Well, suffice to say, you can't completely eradicate human emotion. Can't be done. There's an opposite end of the scale; pure, unadulterated rage. The actual experiment created more of a muddy, middle ground. The Ancients who were trying to remove their emotions ended up with wildly fluctuating emotions. That's what happened here. Except to Colonel Sheppard, who has the Ancient gene. It worked correctly on him."

"Right. Well, thank you, Rodney. I'm sure you've got a lot of work to do yet..."

"Yeah," her groaned. He rubbed his hand and grimaced. "I have to go cover the botany labs now. And I have to find some disinfecting hand lotion." He grumbled and stalked out of the commissary. 

Sam looked down at her right hand. Zelenka had come through the Gate with his hand extended, shaken her hand and proclaimed her cured. Since then, she had imagined she could feel the hand tingling, as if it actually did have some kind of magical curing properties. She sucked her bottom lip and decided Olivia had waited long enough for a cure. And for as long as she had been infected, she would have to touch her quite a few times. Maybe over the course of several hours.

She left the commissary; she had a lot of healing to do.

#

Olivia's hair was still wet from the shower. Sam had assured her the skin-to-skin cure wouldn't be washed off in the water. After being healed - several times, in several interesting places - they had talked about Lauren Cooper. Sam had convinced Olivia that she wasn't becoming a monster, that she cared for the victims but didn't martyr herself for the cause. By the end of their whispered conversation, Olivia had felt a weight lift from her. 

After Sam had fallen asleep, Olivia sat on the edge of her bed in borrowed BDUs and turned to look at the sleeping Colonel. Sam was sleeping peacefully, her eyes moving quickly under the lids. Her lips were slightly parted, her hair spread out across the pillow like a 'sleepy golden storm,' as the song said. 

Olivia bent down and lightly kissed Sam's eyebrow. Sam murmured in her sleep and rolled over, but did not wake. Olivia stroked Sam's long, blonde hair, no longer reminiscent of Alex, and whispered, "I love you, too, Sam." She blinked the tears from her eyes, picked up the small duffel bag with her 'Earth' clothes, and left the room.

#

A few hours later, Sam entered Stargate operations. "Chuck. Was there a traveler to Midway Station last night?"

He checked the log. "Yes, ma'am. Detective Benson left at 0115. Should I contact the station?"

Sam hesitated and said, "Is she there alone?"

"No, ma'am. A botanist from Dr. Brown's team went with her."

"Then no. No, that's fine." She turned and went into the office. She could see the Stargate one floor below, lit up from behind with the early morning light. She touched the glass of her office window and said, "Good-bye, Olivia."

#

Olivia had to deal with countless phone calls and well-wishers and had to explain her cover story a thousand times. She had been ill, the Centers for Disease Control had identified a strain of influenza on the flight she had taken to Colorado Springs three months earlier. They had taken her away without warning because time was of the essence and they couldn't risk further infection. When asked how she had been healed, Olivia pictured the actual process and smiled. The laying on of hands, she thought sadly. She explained that her mood swings and personality changes had been from discomfort and nausea. Easier than explaining the true cause. 

When everyone had been assured she was okay, and that she wasn't ill and would be back at work Monday, she was finally left alone.

She undressed down to her underwear, put on sweats and looked out her apartment window. She walked to her desk and opened her laptop. She stared at the screen, chewed her thumbnail and re-read what she had written. "And so it is with the utmost regret that I am tendering my resignation to the New York City Police Department." 

The squad room was full... Casey, Munch, Fin, Stabler, Chester, Huang, Cragen... she wasn't leaving them understaffed. She was a good detective, but the city was full of them. She had worked in Special Victims for almost a decade. Ten years of her life hunting down rapists and child molesters and serial killers. How many mutilated babies had she seen? How many little girls with dead eyes? And how many more could she see before it drove her insane?

She printed the letter out and looked at the blank space under her name. She picked up a pen. Uncapped it. Looked at the blank space. She capped the pen and laid it across the letter.

Olivia walked barefoot out of the room and looked out the window at New York. Her town. But for how much longer?

The letter could wait for the signature. At least until she was absolutely sure. 

Until then, she just had to hope Sam would wait for her.


	5. The Simplicities of Pleasure

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Olivia makes a decision about where she belongs in the universe.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Set after SVU 9X13, "Inconceivable." In my continuity, since I saw none of it, "Conviction" didn't happen. Alex disappeared back into Witness Protection after "Ghost."

Elliot lifted his glass and tapped a fork against the curved side. The apartment fell into silence and everyone turned to look at him. He cleared his throat and focused on the brunette in the green silk dress. He lifted his glass in a toast. "I'm not good at doing this one-on-one, so I'll just do it in front of all of you. Olivia... you're a great detective. The department is going to be less without you there. I wish you all the best in whatever the hell it is you're leaving us to do." Light laughter at this. "You were a hell of a partner. We'll miss you. To Olivia."

"To Olivia," the rest of the crowd repeated.

Olivia wrapped her arm around Elliot's waist and hugged him, pecking him on the cheek when she pulled back. "Thanks, El."

"It's going to be hell breaking in a new partner, you know."

"You'll make do," Olivia said. She looked around the room and tried to make her voice casual. "Have you seen her?"

"No," Elliot said. "I don't think she's going to make it. You know, they might not have even gotten the invite to her."

"Yeah," Olivia said softly. She took a drink of her champagne and said, "Thanks for throwing all of this together. It means a lot to me."

"Not like you gave us a lot of notice," he said. "But I think it'll do in a pinch."

Olivia nodded. She had finally handed in her resignation after the case at the fertilization clinic. She had snapped at both Elliot and Munch during the course of the investigation, not due to anything they had actually done, but because the case hit a sore point with her. She had been turned down for adoption due to the fact she was single and in a dangerous career. The adoption agent had stopped just short of mentioning Olivia's sexuality, but only because there was enough to deny her without it. She had been faced with the fact that her career was at a standstill, she would never get a chance to adopt a child... New York had suddenly started to feel like a prison to her. But she knew one place where she could make a difference. A place an unimaginable distance away...

Munch weaved through the crowd and Olivia reached out to take his hand. "Munch. Hey."

"Olivia." He hugged her and said, "Leaving to join some top secret military project." He looked at her over the top of his glasses. "You know what that's going to do to me, right?"

She laughed. "I wouldn't expect anything less, Munch. Take care."

"You too. If they offer you any little red pills..."

"I'll keep it in mind." She slipped past him and was moving to the front of the apartment when she heard the doorbell ring. It was barely audible over the sound of the party, but she changed direction and opened the door. Samantha Carter smiled when the door opened, and the expression changed to true happiness when she saw it was Olivia. "Sam. You made it." She stepped forward and embraced the colonel.

Sam closed her eyes and pressed her hand between Olivia's shoulder blades. "Am I late?"

Olivia said, "Well, considering your commute, I think we can excuse it." She stepped back and looked down at Sam's black dress. It was extremely low cut, showing off her cleavage. Her blonde hair was down on her shoulders and she was wearing make-up for maybe the first time since Olivia had met her. "Wow. Is this standard issue, Colonel?"

"You don't want to know where my dog tags are," Sam said. She kept her eyes on the crowd and quickly pecked Olivia's lips. "How are you?"

"I'm doing well. Come on, I want to introduce you to the rest of the team."

Introductions were made, Sam was offered a glass of champagne, and she and Olivia soon became separated in the crowd. Sam tried her best to mingle, but found herself at a loss with the police and law officials. She stopped by the makeshift bar between the living room and the kitchen and asked for a glass of champagne. As the glass was handed over, a woman to her left said, "I haven't seen you before..."

Sam turned and smiled at the other blonde. Her skin was pale, almost translucent, and she wore horn-rimmed glasses. Sam said, "I'm just in town to accompany Olivia to her new assignment and she invited me to the going away party. Colonel Samantha Carter."

"Ah, the famous Colonel Carter," the woman said. "I've heard a lot about you." She extended her hand. "Gretchen Thomas."

Sam shook her hand. "Do you work with Olivia?"

Gretchen scanned the crowd. "No. I used to, though. A long time ago. I made a... career move. I'm in plastics now."

"Looks more like silk," Sam said with a grin.

Gretchen smiled. "Good one."

Sam shrugged and gestured at the bar. "Champagne?"

"No, I really shouldn't stay."

"Oh. Have you said hello to Olivia...?"

"No. I really probably shouldn't. I think it would be hard for her."

Sam looked at the woman's blonde hair, black-rimmed glasses and realized who she was speaking to. "Alex," she said softly.

The woman looked at Sam for a long moment and said, "No. Gretchen Thomas. It was a pleasure meeting you, Colonel."

"You too," Sam said softly. 

She watched the blonde's figure slip away and disappear into the crowd. She left the bar and wandered through the crowd. She had almost finished her champagne when Olivia appeared at her elbow and dragged her across the apartment. "What?" Sam said. "Is everything okay?"

"Fine," Olivia said. She pulled Sam into a den and pressed her against the wall. She slipped her hands around Sam's waist and pressed herself against the colonel's body. Sam sighed into the sudden kiss, her hands finding the scooped-out back of Olivia's dress. She slid her hand inside and cupped the warm, naked flesh underneath as Olivia's tongue flickered against her lips. 

When they parted, Olivia exhaled and whispered, "God, I needed that."

Sam brushed a few strands of Olivia's hair where it had gotten caught in her eyelashes. "Why didn't you come earlier so I could greet you more appropriately?"

"There was a situation on Atlantis," Sam whispered. "I left as soon as I could, and even that was pushing it."

Olivia's eyes dipped down to the low front of Sam's dress. "And why aren't you wearing underwear?"

"Because I'm an evil woman," Sam said. She kissed Olivia's lips and walked her backward. There was a couch in the shadows, and Sam pushed Olivia down onto it. Olivia looked up at Sam, backlit by the open doorway, and held her breath as Sam hitched up her dress. She straddled Olivia's legs, walked forward and sat lightly on her lap. Olivia could see the tops of Sam's stockings, just below the pale flesh of her thighs. They kissed and Olivia pushed her hands under the bundled material of Sam's dress and pressed her hands to the curve where Sam's legs met her hip.

"Someone might see," Sam said against Olivia's mouth.

"I'm leaving for another galaxy tomorrow," Olivia said. She kissed the flat part of Sam's chest and ran her tongue across it, just as she had imagined ever since Sam stepped into the apartment wearing it. "Let them watch."

Sam ran her fingers through Olivia's hair and said, "I've missed you."

Olivia sighed and used her nose to push aside the black cloth covering Sam's breast. She found the pink, erect nipple and ran her tongue over her lips. She took Sam's nipple into her mouth and sucked gently. She kneaded the fingers of her hands against Sam's hips and, soon, Sam was thrusting eagerly against Olivia. 

Olivia leaned back against the cushions of the couch and swallowed hard. She took one hand out from under Sam's dress and put it in the small of her back. The other hand moved laterally across Sam's lap and found the damp patch of hair between her legs. She curled two fingers against the folds, stroked back and forth a few times until Sam's breath caught in her throat, and extended the two fingers into her.

Sam grunted and bowed forward. She dug her knees into Olivia's sides and rocked against her fingers. "Three?" Olivia breathed, and Sam nodded.

As Olivia slipped her ring finger inside, she extended her thumb and brushed Sam's clit. Sam gasped, "Oh, my God, Olivia..." And dug her fingernails into Olivia's shoulders.

Olivia kissed Sam's shoulder and glanced toward the door. Her heart skipped when she saw someone standing there, and her skin erupted in gooseflesh when she realized who it was. Alex looked different, but still the same. Same glasses, same blue eyes currently wide with surprise behind them. She looked like she was trying to say something but failing to find the words. They stared at each other for a moment, Sam thrusting unawares between the two former lovers. 

After a long moment, Olivia leaned back and drew Sam's head to hers. Sam's eyes were closed, but she latched onto Olivia's lips eagerly. "I'm coming," she said against Olivia's lips.

Olivia sped up her fingers and let Sam's head rest on her shoulder again. When she looked at the door, Alex had vanished. Olivia ran her hands over Sam's back and held her as she came. When she came down off her climax, she kissed Olivia's neck and her the curve of her jaw. Their lips met and Sam brushed her fingers over Olivia's cheek. She pulled back and said, "You're crying."

Olivia forced a smile. "It's nothing. Kiss me."

Sam kissed Olivia's lips and held her for a long moment. "We should go before someone walks in and sees us," Sam whispered.

"Yeah." Olivia withdrew her hand and wiped the fingers on the throw pillow next to her. Sam rolled to the side and held her dress awkwardly in front of her lap. "Um. Bathroom..."

Olivia pointed to a door across the room and Sam said, "I'll see you back in the party."

"Okay," Olivia said. She watched Sam walk off, looked at the doorway to the living room and decided she would stay there, sitting in the dark, until Sam came back. 

#

Outside in the street, the woman who had been called Alexandra and Emily and Gretchen stood on the sidewalk and let the night breeze dry her tears. She didn't feel betrayed, or angry or jealous. She was mourning the passing of something that, if she was honest with herself, had died years ago. Alex Cabot may have survived the hail of gunfire, but her relationship with Olivia had been the only real casualty that night. 

She pulled out her cell phone and dialed. After a moment, there was an answer and Gretchen started walking. "Hey, Liz. It's Gretchen Thomas. Yeah. Yeah, it's been a while. Are you... doing anything later? No, nothing important. I just thought... maybe I could... drop by."

#

Her last morning in New York started just after five in the morning. Olivia woke when the first rays of light crossed her bedroom window. She rolled onto her back, her arm pinned under Sam's body, and looked at the ceiling. She was more aware, now, of her apartment's feel and smell. After years of living there, she was looking at it like a visitor would. The creaks, the cracks in the wall, the smell that she had never quite identified and hadn't noticed in at least five years all came flooding back in bright Technicolor.

She turned back to Sam, looping her arm around the Colonel's waist and drawing her close. She kissed Sam's shoulder and rested her cheek against the cool skin. She was close to falling back to sleep when Sam stirred. Sam put her hand on Olivia's wrist, spreading her fingers to completely encircle it. Olivia kissed the back of Sam's neck under the wave of her hair and said, "Hey," in a raspy-voiced whisper.

Sam moved Olivia's hand to her breast and turned to look at her. "Good morning." They kissed hello and Olivia squeezed her handful. Sam moaned and arched her back into the touch.

"I'm glad you stayed," Olivia said.

"Me, too."

"Do we have time for a shower before the plane?"

Sam grunted and reached for the nightstand. She picked up her watch and said, "We have time for one long shower."

Olivia sat up and let the blanket fall away from her breast. "Well, then, let's get to it."

#

There was something inherently sad about leaving the next morning wearing the party dress from the night before, so Sam borrowed a pair of jeans and a blouse from Olivia. She picked up the last of Olivia's bags and followed her downstairs. Olivia was keeping the lease on her apartment, just in case, but she stopped at the door and looked over the empty space. Sam stepped behind her and kissed the back of her neck. She laced her fingers together with Olivia's and whispered, "Do you need a minute?"

"No," Olivia said. Sam watched Olivia's face and thought about what it would be like having her on the base. It had been a trial getting the IOA to agree to have Olivia brought to Atlantis, but they had finally given in. Sam had argued they needed a civilian who could enforce civilian law on the base. Using military officers had worked up until now but there came a point when using soldiers as law enforcement started to look like martial law.

Finally, Olivia squeezed Sam's hand once and let it go. Olivia locked the apartment door and said, "So when is our flight?"

Sam pulled a communicator from her pocket and said, " _Odyssey,_ this is Colonel Carter. We're ready."

Olivia's apartment was filled with a brilliant white light and, moments later, was completely empty.


	6. Last Amen to a Migratory Song

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Olivia finds she is having a hard time fitting in on Atlantis. When going an off-world diplomatic mission turns into a disaster, she finds herself questioning whether she made the right decision to leave Earth.

It wasn't a matter of hatred. She didn't hate her job in the least. What she hated was sitting behind the desk, being the bureaucrat, dealing with mission reports and performance evaluations while she watched other teams venture through the Stargate. In a way, it was easier for her than it had been for General O'Neill since she hadn't spent ten years going through the Atlantis gate, and she hadn't explored the Pegasus Galaxy as thoroughly as she had the Milky Way. She didn't know what she was missing. 

She tapped her pencil against the edge of her desk and looked up and saw Olivia Benson in the command center. The report she had read that morning came to mind and she realized there was no time like the present to deal with the ugly situation. She reached up and touched her earpiece, rather than shout across the bridge. When she spoke, she nearly called Olivia 'Detective.' But the IOA made sure that everyone knew that no civilian law enforcement agency would have a presence on Atlantis. Olivia would just be the equivalent of a civilian authority. They were both amused at the irony; they wanted her skill, but not her rank.

They had come up with a compromise; an unofficial title for her unofficial position as head of security. Sam still had to fight a smile every time she said it. She tapped her earpiece and said, "Constable Benson."

Olivia lifted her head, smiling a little at the title, and turned to look into the office. Sam lifted her hand and said, "Could you come in here when you have a moment?"

"Sure," Olivia said. She turned back to the technician she had been speaking with, put a hand on his shoulder and straightened. She left him to his work and crossed the walkway to Sam's office. "What's up?"

"Close the door," Sam said.

Olivia hesitated and then brushed her hand over the control. "Is this a good closed-door meeting or a bad one?"

Sam hesitated. "More of the latter, I'm afraid." She straightened her shoulders and folded her hands together in front of her. "Do you want to tell me what happened with Dr. Kavanagh?"

Olivia sighed. "He actually made the complaint?"

"He did," Sam said. "I'd like to hear your version of events."

Olivia moved to the chair in front of Sam's desk and sat down. She leaned back and said, "How much did he tell you?"

"The Kavanagh special," Sam said. "You were singling him out, you were picking on him, he'd been pigeon-holed as a trouble-maker by the previous administration and I was carrying out the status quo... You did have a legitimate reason to question him, correct?"

"Yes, of course. A few supplies had gone missing from one of the labs where he had been scheduled to work. I questioned him along with everyone else who had been scheduled to work in those labs."

Sam looked down at the report. "This doesn't say what was stolen."

"A laptop, some periphery software. It was earmarked for a science team, but when they unloaded the supplies from the SGC it was missing."

"Wait, when was the robbery?"

"Four years ago, when the expedition first arrived."

Sam closed her eyes and flipped the cover back onto the report. "Olivia..."

"Sergeant Bates was in charge of security then, I understand."

Sam held up a hand. "Liv, please. I understand things are slower than you're used to, but you can't go around trying to solve every little thing. If the laptop hasn't been found in four years, odds are the inventory was simply mistaken. Trust me, it happens a lot." She remembered being off-world, hunkered down behind a stone wall for cover and discovering her flak jacket had no extra cartridges for her gun. Ah, the good old days. 

Olivia leaned forward, elbows on her knees and said, "I'll be honest with you, Sam. I'm going crazy here. Occasionally breaking up a fight in the mess hall, settling disputes between scientists. I don't feel like I belong here."

Sam stood up and walked around her desk. She sat on the edge, something she would have done to talk to Sheppard or Zelenka, but reached out and took Olivia's hand. The gesture was blocked by Olivia's body, so no one in the command center could see. "I understand it's been a hard transition for you. You just need to give it some time so you can find your niche."

Olivia sighed and brushed her thumb across Sam's knuckle. "It's been four months, Sam."

"I know. All I'm asking..."

"A little more time," Olivia finished. She looked down at Sam's hands and said, "You went through a hell of a lot of red tape to get me here. I'm not ready to admit defeat yet."

Sam smiled. "Glad to hear it." She and Olivia both stood and Olivia moved toward the door. "Are we still on for dinner tonight?"

Olivia said, "Of course. Your quarters."

"They do have a better view," Sam said. 

"Perks of leadership." Olivia opened the door and turned. She casually held out her hand. Sam mimicked the move and they pressed the pads of their index fingers together. It was their equivalent of a good-bye kiss, as much as they could do in a glass-enclosed room like Sam's office. 

Sam let her hand fall and watched as Olivia walked back across the catwalk. She let her eyes drift to Olivia's waist, then below. Since she was a civilian, Olivia wasn't required to wear the standard gray jumpsuit that the scientists and military personnel had to wear. Her slacks and open-necked blouses wouldn't have been out of place in New York, but something about the city around them made the outfits look futuristic. Sam bit her bottom lip and started thinking about their dinner date.

#

Dinner turned into a casual briefing on random security measures, which turned into drinks and a slow round of love-making by the window. Olivia loved to have sex Sam's quarters; the sound of the waves echoed off the balcony and made her feel like they were on the beach. Olivia had always fantasized about having sex on the beach, but she had lived her whole life in New York. Sex on a New York beach was not worth the diseases she was sure to get afterward.

They curled up together on Sam's bed, Sam kissing Olivia's shoulder while Olivia traced lines down Sam's arm. "You okay?" Sam asked, her lips against Olivia's cool skin.

"Mm-hmm."

"Want to talk some more about the old cases?"

Olivia shook her head. She scooted further into Sam's arms until she felt Sam's body against hers. "I just want to lie like this a little while longer."

"Okay," Sam said. She smoothed her hand over Olivia's stomach, dipped her thumb into Olivia's navel.

"Don't start anything you can't finish."

Sam moaned and licked the back of Olivia's neck. "Maybe I'll finish it."

"I have to get back to my quarters."

"Are you sure?" Sam asked, drifting her hands lower.

"Yes. But in a few minutes. When I can walk again."

Sam laughed and reluctantly moved her hands back up. She laced her fingers over her stomach and rested her chin on Olivia's shoulder. After a few moments, Olivia said, "Okay," and patted Sam's hand. Sam released her and rolled onto her back as Olivia began gathering her clothes from where they had been tossed earlier. She held the bundle against her chest and turned around. She put her hand on Sam's cheek, slid it forward into her long, loose hair and drew her close for a kiss. "I had a great time tonight."

"Me, too," Sam said. "I'll see you tomorrow?"

Olivia nodded. "If not at work, then here."

Sam smiled. "Sounds good."

Olivia got out of bed and dressed, then bent to give Sam another good-night kiss. She smiled and brushed her fingers down Sam's cheek. "I can't seem to stop kissing you."

"Well, I can come to terms with you having one bad habit."

Olivia grinned, kissed her one more time for good measure and said, "Night, Sam."

Sam reclined, blankets tucked under her arms, and dropped her head onto the pillow. Olivia stopped at the door and smiled. "If I could take a picture right now..."

"Like what you see?" Sam asked. She lifted the blanket and bent her knee, turning to reveal her bare hip. 

Olivia chuckled. "It won't work. I'm sleeping in my own bed tonight. People will get suspicious."

"Let them. We're in another galaxy. The rules are more relaxed here."

"Yeah," Olivia said. She nodded, but didn't move back to the bed. "Good night, Sam."

"Good night, Olivia."

Olivia made sure all her buttons and zippers were in place and waited for Sam to be covered up before she opened the door.

The corridors of Atlantis were different at night. To conserve power, they dimmed the lights to the lowest setting. The effect created corridors with a spooky haunted-house feel at the interior, but at the outskirts of the city it was heavenly. The dark city, marvelous during the day, handed over the stage to nature once the sun went down. The moons rode the waves, which rolled like velvet and lapped quietly against the piers of the magnificent city.

Olivia stood and rested her elbows on the railing. This was her adopted city. Atlantis, for Christ's sake, but she would focus on that later. For the moment, her mind was preoccupied by the fact she had literally left the galaxy to be with a woman. She never would have thought she would have feelings that strong for anyone after Alex. But if there was one thing her relationship with Alex taught her, it was not to let go of a good thing. And Samantha Carter was definitely that.

No matter how intimidating she might be as a lover. A police detective sleeping with an ADA was a nice, balanced relationship. But now she was sleeping with her boss. An Air Force Colonel in charge of an entire city. The leader of an expedition in another galaxy. There was something odd about asking someone with that much power to go down on you.

"Evening."

She turned quickly, amused at the thought someone might have read her mind until she realized where she was. Mind-reading wasn't exactly unheard of in this city. The voice was Major Lorne's, and he lifted a hand as he walked past her. He wasn't breaking his stride, but offered her a sincere smile.

"Hi, Major."

"I'm off-duty. It's Evan." He stopped a few feet from her and leaned on the railing. "Taking in the sights?"

Olivia nodded. "I'm still not used to it."

"Join the club." They smiled at each other and Lorne said, "I'm heading to the commissary for a midnight snack. You want to join me?"

"No, thanks. I was just heading to bed when I got distracted."

Lorne nodded. "Okay. Well, I'll be there for a while if you change your mind." He pushed away from the railing and said, "Good night, Constable."

"Good night, Evan."

She waited until the sound of his footsteps faded before she went on her way. She stuck her hands into her pockets and let her shoulders relax, her head dropping slightly. There were still people around, various nightshift workers on their way to or from various assignments. She nodded hello to most of them, knew a handful by name, and realized that Atlantis was quickly becoming home to her.

It was much like New York, but without the fear of muggers or rapists in every shadow. It was a large city by the water immune to the most of the mundane thrills of human life. Of course, it was tempered by the chance of an outer space attack by life-sucking vampires who looked like Nosferatu's ugly stepchildren. So life found a way to balance things out.

As she passed by other quarters, she could hear a vast range of sounds coming from within. Bach quickly faded to be replaced by an old country-western song. She heard rap, she heard voices raised in argument and in passion. It was like being in a college dorm room; the whole of human existence playing out behind these closed doors.

She was almost to the lift when a door in front of her opened. She heard soft, feminine voices and paused, hidden by a beam.

"I'll see you tomorrow."

"You'd better."

Olivia leaned forward slightly so that she could confirm her suspicions. Jennifer Keller was standing in the doorway of Laura Cadman's quarters, kissing her good-bye. Cadman was dressed in a long T-shirt, her alabaster legs bare and pressed together. She balled her hand in the cloth of Jennifer's shirt, lifting it slightly so that Olivia could see the small of the doctor's back. Jennifer moaned into the kiss and then gasped when they parted. 

"Okay. Go."

Jennifer said, "Wham bam?"

"I said thank you, ma'am," Cadman said. Her hand slid down to Jennifer's ass and swatted it once. Jennifer murmured something and Cadman laughed. "Good night."

"Night." 

Olivia backed up in the hopes Jennifer would go the other way. But, of course, she soon passed in front of Olivia's hiding space. She spotted Olivia out of the corner of her eye and gasped, jumped back and put a hand to her chest. "God. Detec--I mean, Constable Benson." When the initial fear passed, she looked over her shoulder and said, "Oh. You probably heard..."

"It's all right, Doctor," Olivia said.

Jennifer's shoulders slumped a bit, but that was the only sign of relaxing. Her face was still tense, and she gestured with her chin. "It was our... our first time together. Just now."

She seemed to want to talk about it, so Olivia said, "How was it?"

"Good," Jennifer said, a bit hesitantly. "I mean... she's a little... she-she's a top. And aggressive about it."

"Ah." Olivia smiled. "I've been with a few of those."

"How do you... deal with it?"

"Lie back, spread your legs and cross your wrists for the handcuffs," Olivia said. She winked and said, "Have a good night, Jennifer."

They split up, moving in different directions, and Olivia couldn't help but smile. It seemed Jennifer was doing well on the rebound, after discovering the real reasons for Olivia's arrival on Atlantis. Jennifer and Sam had 'been together' briefly between Sam's trips to New York and Olivia's arrival on Atlantis. Olivia didn't mind, since she had also tried to rekindle the flame with Casey Novak, but it was awkward having her lover's former one-night stand so close at hand.

Romance in the Pegasus Galaxy, she mused as she stepped into the transport. Turns out it's not much different than in the Milky Way. She sighed and pressed the screen to take her back to her quarters. She had asked Sam to assign her whatever quarters were free, since she didn't want to raise eyebrows by moving in right next door to her. Unfortunately, that meant that she and Sam lived on different tiers. The problem with that was it still raised eyebrows to find Olivia or Sam on the wrong tier at the wrong hour of night. Olivia was planning to ask for a transfer soon; someplace closer to Sam where they wouldn't have to come up with lame reasons to be near each other. 

When she got back to her room, thankfully not running into anyone else on the way, she undressed and stood at the window in her underwear.

Across the city, Sam was probably asleep by now. Across the galaxy, Stabler and Munch and Casey were still fighting the good fight... stuck in the middle was Olivia, current head of security for the most top-secret outpost in two galaxies. For how long, she wasn't sure. But she was sure that no matter how tedious things got, no matter how much she wanted to quit, she would ride it out. Samantha Carter was worth it.

The desk under the window caught her eye, and she lifted the stack of envelopes she had left there. Letters from her old coworkers. Stabler: "I don't know where Carter took you, but you might as well be on the moon." She smiled. Think bigger, El. Munch: "Whoever this Carter is, she's buried deep and she's buried well. Be very careful."

Olivia owed them all mail, but she felt odd writing emails on official laptops and waiting to send them until the Stargate happened to be connected to the SGC. Pen-and-paper letters would have to do, but finding the time to write them was murder. She put the envelopes down and made a mental note to catch up on her correspondence. It wasn't like the base was keeping her busy with security matters.

She hugged herself against the cold of the night, shut the window and went to bed.

#

Olivia's office was a long, narrow, poorly-lit closet a few levels below the command center in the tower. The windows could be opened, but at the moment she didn't want to go to the effort. The darkness reminded her of the SVU squad room, which she reluctantly admitted homesickness for. Mainly for her desk and the camaraderie rather than the cases that crossed her desk. She'd had enough of those for a lifetime. She had her feet up on the desk, reclined as she read the report from Sergeant Middleton about a fight in the commissary the night before.

She was halfway through it, mentally formulating the speech she would give when she visited the culprits in holding, when the doors slid open and Major Lorne stepped in. "Constable. Do you have a minute?"

"Sure, Major," Olivia said. She put her feet down and sat up, turning to face the desk. 

Lorne stepped forward and stopped between the chairs. "Actually, I guess a more appropriate question would be if you had three days. My team is schedule to leave this afternoon on a diplomatic mission with the Uyude, the local denizens of M43-221. It's a three-day conference and they're... a little skeptical about our position here in Pegasus."

"How so?"

He cleared his throat. "Certain members of their high council believe that we, ah, stormed into Atlantis in a hostile takeover and let loose the Wraith to decimate the indigenous population so we could have it all for ourselves."

Olivia raised an eyebrow. "What, did someone on your team slip them an American History book last time you were there?"

"The Wraith as smallpox-laced blankets," Lorne said. He shrugged and said, "I'd like to think we're past that. But more importantly, I'd like to convince the elders that we're past that."

"Okay," Olivia said. "Assuming Colonel Carter signs off on it, I'd be more than happy to join your team for the mission."

Lorne smiled. "Colonel Carter's already on board. She just wanted to make sure you were willing."

"Ah. Well, then, when do we leave?"

#

Sam made an excuse to be close to the gear-up room when she knew Olivia was getting ready. She hesitated at the doorway and ducked her head in. Olivia was standing at one of the lockers, head bowed as she worked the catches of her flak jacket.

From nowhere, Sam felt a tightness growing in her chest. The way Olivia stood, her head down with her light brown hair covering her face like a veil, Sam had a memory of the handful of times she had watched Janet gear-up for an off-world mission. The spell was broken when Olivia looked up and Sam saw her face, but the tightness remained. "Hey," Olivia said.

"Hey," Sam replied. She was surprised by how strained her voice sounded.

Olivia looked down at her vest. "Janet?"

"How did you know?"

"Because sometimes when you rest your head on my stomach..."

"Alex?"

Olivia nodded and kept her chin down for a moment longer than necessary. When she looked up again, her eyes were dry. "How do I look?"

Sam stepped forward and adjusted the way the vest laid on Olivia's shoulders. She tightened a catch, twisted the collar around the right way and flipped Olivia's hair out over it. She looked into Olivia's eyes for a moment before she leaned forward and kissed her lips. When they parted, Sam said, "Perfect."

Olivia smiled and brushed her hand down Sam's forearm. "Do you give all first-timers this send-off?"

"Not all of them. Sometimes I just let them feel me up. And I think you got your fill of that last night."

"Don't make assumptions, Colonel," Olivia chided. She picked up her pack and said, "Come on. Lorne's waiting."

They walked together to the gate room, where Lorne's team was indeed gathered. Sam craned her neck to look at the control room. "Dial it up, Chuck."

Lorne laughed and said, "You do that on purpose."

Sam straightened her spine and rolled her shoulders. "I am an Air Force Colonel, Major. I would not do that."

"You served under Colonel Jack O'Neill for eight years," Lorne said. "Yeah. You would."

Sam smiled and turned to watch the Gate spin. She looked at Olivia and said, "You'll be fine. It'll do you good to get out and see a bit of the galaxy you're calling home now."

"Yeah," Olivia said. "I just hope it's not the 'suckers-in-their-hands' bit."

Captain Parrish, a member of Lorne's team, said, "No reports of Wraith activity in the area for quite some time. We shouldn't have a problem."

"As long as the people of the Uyude don't get too angry at us, that is," Lorne said.

The Stargate activated and the team fell in before it. "You'll be great," Sam mouthed. She reached out and pressed her index finger to Olivia's before walking to the stairs. By the time she made it to the command center, Lorne's team was entirely through the gate. The event horizon snapped out, revealing the ornate glass behind it, the one thing she would consider an improvement over the SGC's set-up. Well, that and the non-jerry-rigged dialing device, of course. And, well, her office. She loved her office.

Plus the occasional company that found its way to her bed. She smiled and took her seat.

Yeah, lots of things she liked better about Atlantis over the SGC.

#

Sam was just preparing for bed, already in her nightshirt, when her headset chirped to life. "Colonel Carter."

"Yes, Chuck."

"Major Lorne's team is an hour and a half late for their scheduled check-in."

A worm of fear planted itself at the back of Sam's mind, but she remained calm. "Can you make contact with the Uyude people?"

"We've made contact, but they claim not to know anything."

Sam stood up and began unbuttoning her nightshirt. "Keep me apprised. I'll be there as soon as I can." She pulled her uniform from the hamper and quickly stepped into the trousers. _Nothing went wrong. It's just one of those things that happens on missions sometimes. You know how time can get away from you._

The little voice was no comfort to her at the moment. She tugged on her jacket as she left her quarters, not bothering to put her hair up. She controlled herself enough to walk to the command center, but began giving orders as soon as she was on the stairs. "Dial M43-221 for me. I want to talk to the elders myself."

Chuck dialed the gate and, a few moments later a man's face flickered to life on the screen in front of her. His shoulders were angled oddly, taking up most of the shot. Sam squared her shoulders and said, "I'm Colonel Samantha Carter, the leader of this expedition."

"Hello, Colonel. I am Council Faroh. How may I be of assistance to you this day?"

"We sent a team to speak with you earlier this afternoon. As of now, they're ninety minutes overdue for a scheduled check-in."

Faroh held his hands out. Behind him, she could see the DHD. There was a man standing next to it, apparently doing something to the controls. _He wouldn't be trying to dial out while there was an active wormhole,_ Sam thought. _What is he doing?_ She focused on what Faroh was saying.

"--to hear this, Colonel Carter. But I do not know what you wish us to do. Your team never arrived for our meeting. We assumed the... antagonist nature of our last conversation dissuaded them from future talks with us."

"I hope you won't mind if I sent another team to look for them. As a gesture of good faith."

Faroh seemed hesitant, but apparently couldn't think of a reason to refuse her. He glanced quickly over his shoulder and then nodded. "Of course not, Colonel. Your people are welcome here."

"Great to hear it," Sam said. "We'll send them through in two hours." She glanced at Chuck and nodded for him to cut transmission. 

"The other guy was doing something to the DHD," Chuck said.

"Yeah," Sam nodded. "But we can't just leave our people there. Contact the _Apollo_ and see how soon he can be there to pick us up. Contact Colonel Sheppard's team. Have them ready to go in thirty minutes. And tell him I'm coming along."

"Ma'am?" Chuck said.

"I plan to be there to see what the good Council has waiting for us in two hours."  
#

Sam arrived in the gear-up room to find Laura Cadman with the rest of Sheppard's team. "Lieutenant. Where's Teyla?"

"She wanted to rest, prep for her meeting with the new IOA bigwigs," Sheppard said. "Cadman was up, agreed to fill in."

Sam nodded her understanding and went to an open locker. "I look forward to working with you, Lieutenant Cadman."

"Same here, ma'am."

As they pulled on their gear, Sam said, "Remember, this isn't officially a rescue mission. We're just going to find the team. There's no reason to think the Uyude had anything to do with their disappearance."

"Right," Ronon said. "Because I'm so good at giving the benefit of the doubt."

Sam smiled. "Regardless... keep an open mind."

Sheppard smiled, "He's not exactly known for that, either."

McKay hurried in just as Sam was shedding her uniform jacket for the black leather jacket preferred by the off-world teams. "Sorry, sorry, I was caught up with the, ah... the..." His eyes wandered down Sam's bare arms and he slowed to a crawl.

"Rodney," Sam snapped.

He blinked and continued to his locker. "Right. Yes. I was, ah, adjusting the life signs detector. Hopefully it will stop alerting us to the presence of, um. The local equivalent of rabbits, goats, various local flora. But it will still pick up Ursus. They were too big to effectively delete from the parameters."

"Plus he's scared of bears," Sheppard confided to Sam. "Likes to know when they're coming."

Sam smiled. "All right. Let's move out."

McKay muttered to Sheppard, "I'm sure you'd love it if a bear just wandered up behind you without you knowing it."

They stepped through the Stargate and emerged onto a hillside in the middle of a rainstorm. The sky was dark with thick, charcoal colored clouds that sent icicles of rain into their faces. McKay covered his eyes with his hand and shouted over the wind, "The MALP didn't pick up any of this!"

"It could be like a spring storm on Earth," Sam called back. "They pop up out of nowhere in Oklahoma and Texas during tornado season."

"Didn't know you were from that area, sir," Cadman said.

Sam shook her head. "I'm not." _Janet was._ She remembered the trip to the Fraiser homestead, huddled under the blankets in the storm shelter, making love with their clothes on as the storm raged overhead. She shook her head to clear the memories and guided the team to a waist-high retaining wall. The water was gathering on the up-slope side, so they huddled on the opposite side to protect themselves from the wind and driving rain. Sam clicked her radio button a few times, giving Lorne's team a chance to respond. 

After a moment, she spoke, "Major Lorne, this is Colonel Carter. Come in."

There was no reply.

Sam accepted that for the moment and turned to Sheppard and Ronon. "Set up a perimeter. See which way the Uyude are likely to use to 'greet' us."

They moved out and Sam turned to Cadman. "Lieutenant, set charges along the treeline. If they did do something to our people, I want to have a few tricks up my sleeve."

Alone with McKay, Sam motioned for him to follow her. He mumbled as he followed her from behind their cover, running in a crouch to the DHD. Sam eyed the console, but couldn't see anything wrong on the surface. She and McKay knelt down together and removed the panel just under the rim of the device. "Oh, no," McKay groaned.

Sam didn't even know where to begin. The circuits were twisted and wrapped around each other. Crystals were alight with half the power they usually displayed, and cobwebs stretched between the cowling and the machinery. "They've mangled this thing. And not entirely on purpose. I can't even begin to explain how bad this is."

"They jerry-rigged a half-assed interface and when that started to fail, they just wrapped duct-tape around the whole thing to keep it from collapsing."

McKay looked at her, surprised, and then said, "Oh. Right. Sometimes I forget who you are."

Sam smiled, but there was little humor behind it. "God. I think I know how the Ancients would feel if they ever got a look at the SGC's dialing computer. I've seen some screwed-up DHDs in my time, but this is beyond me. What do you think?"

"Well, yeah. It's even beyond me," McKay said.

Sam glared at him. "If only we had brought Zelenka."

McKay straightened and said, "Why, do you need someone to bring you coffee?"

Sam rolled her eyes and looked back into the guts of the machine. "There's so much thrown together that I'm not even sure if it's sabotage." She had a mental flash of the man working at the dialer while Faroh spoke to her. "I'm not going to risk dialing it. At least not until we know what happened to our people. The _Apollo_ will be here in 36 hours."

"Right," McKay said. "Well, I hope you brought a rain slicker, because it doesn't look like this is letting up any time soon."

Sheppard and Ronon returned then. "No surprises in the trees," Sheppard reported. "We've got three dirt trails leading to the Stargate, two of them uphill and the other down. If I had to bet, I'd say they'll come from the downhill path."

"All right. Get in position. We've got a long wait ahead of us."

McKay sneezed and wiped his sleeve under his nose. "Ah. Wonderful. Pneumonia. Because this planet wasn't quite horrible enough."

They moved to take cover at the treeline, crouching amid the bushes. Sam sent Ronon farther down the path so he could alert them when a welcoming party was on the way. Cadman joined them and told Sam, "Easter eggs have been hidden."

Sam smiled. "Thank you, Lieutenant."

The rain continued, but the trees provided a bit of cover for them. After a few minutes, Ronon's voice came over the radio. "Sheppard."

"We got company?"

"Yeah, but not who we were expecting. Couple of guys in a wagon. Look like farmers. 'Cept the guy in front is wearing one of our team's jackets."

Sam tensed and looked at Sheppard. He raised an eyebrow. "I don't know about you, Colonel, but that sounds like someone I'd like to meet."

Sam nodded and said, "Ronon. How far away are they?"

"They'll reach the clearing in about two minutes."

"Head back this way and cover them from the rear. Lieutenant, you're with me. John, you and Rodney take the other side of the clearing."

They spread out and took their positions. Cadman knelt next to Sam and said, "Permission to speak freely, sir?"

Sam shrugged. "Sure."

"When I was first accepted to the SGC and the _Daedalus_ , I read up on mission reports to see what I was getting into. The majority of those reports were SG-1 missions, and the majority of those focused on you. I spent the trip from Earth to Pegasus onboard the _Daedalus_ reading about you. I just wanted to say it's an honor to be here."

Sam glanced at her. "Was Teyla really too tired to come along?"

Cadman shrugged. "I suggested taking her place when I knew you were coming along. She didn't fight me on it."

Sam nodded. With Teyla's current condition, Cadman would be better to have at her side if things got rough. Still. "Don't do it again," she said. "If you really want to spend time with me, I'll arrange us to have lunch sometime."

"Yes, sir. Sorry, sir."

"Just no tap-dancing."

Cadman smiled. "You know about that?"

"Word gets around the base, lieutenant," Sam said. She looked over her shoulder and smiled. "Especially the embarrassing stuff."

"I'm not embarrassed by my tap-dancing. I've won championships. I'll show you the trophies sometime."

Sam smiled and focused on the path again. If Ronon was right, the cart should be reaching the clearing any...

At that moment, the sound of wheels on cobblestones became audible over the rain. The cart came into view and Sam saw that the driver was indeed wearing a black leather jacket similar to the kind off-world teams wore. His head was covered by a wide-brimmed hat, so she couldn't be certain it wasn't one of Lorne's men. But why would one of the team's members go to the trouble of covering their face and then kept the jacket on?

When the cart was close enough, Sam gestured for Cadman to move. Across the way, Sheppard also stepped out from cover. "Hold up, there."

The driver pulled up in the reins which, instead of a horse, led into the body of the cart he was riding. The wheels stopped with an almost hydraulic hiss as the man looked at Sheppard and Cadman's weapons. "I have nothing of value," he said. "Only prisoners."

"Prisoners," Sheppard said. "You got anyone watching these prisoners back there?"

"Of course..."

Sam came out from cover and went to the back of the cart. She stopped at the corner and said, "Open the doors and step out of the cart."

A man within said, "But it's raining!"

Sam rolled her eyes. _Great. Their warden is McKay's long-lost cousin._ "Come out _now_."

The doors swung open and a man jumped onto the stone path. He hunched his shoulders and ducked his head against the rain. Sam glanced into the back of the cart and saw everyone else was seated on benches along both walls. Sam looked at the guard in time to see McKay approaching him. "Rodney!" she called

It was too late. The guard suddenly straightened and swung his right arm out. McKay jumped back with a "Geez!" and narrowly avoided getting sliced open. Sam took one step, stuck her leg out and swept the guard's legs out from underneath him. _Why can't Atlantis teams wear zats?_ she asked as the guard dropped to the ground. _I'm definitely going to have to change that. Just zat the damn guards and deal with them later._

"Tie him up," Sam said to McKay. "And check him for weapons." She looked up and saw Ronon jogging down the path toward them. 

Confident Ronon could handle the tricky guard, Sam turned her attention to the prisoners. Cadman joined her as she climbed into the back of the cart. Sam took the hood off one of the prisoners and sighed. "Major Lorne."

"Good to see you, Colonel."

Cadman pulled the hoods off two prisoners on the opposite side. "These aren't our people."

Lorne said, "No. There were a half-dozen other prisoners in the place they kept us."

Sam unmasked the other prisoners on Lorne's side. Two more members of his team were present, but Olivia and Captain Michael French were missing. "Where is the rest of your team?"

"Still back in the prison. The meeting was a set-up. The Council had some kind of scanner set into the doorway of their chambers. As soon as we walked in, they took us into custody and separated us."

"Based on what?"

"The ATA gene," Parrish said. "Everyone they put on this cart has the ATA gene. Constable Benson and Captain French don't. I think we got sold to the highest bidder."

Sheppard, from the door of the cart, said, "The Genii tried to gather up people with the ATA gene about two years ago."

"It's always nice to be wanted," Lorne muttered as Cadman untied his hands.

Sam remembered the mission report; Lorne had been taken prisoner that time as well. "We're going to start assigning a bodyguard to your team, Major."

He chuckled and helped her free the other people. "I'll take it under advisement."

"I'm going to need the layout of the village. I need to know where they took Olivia and French."

"I can show you."

"You're not going," Sam said. "Neither is Colonel Sheppard or Dr. McKay."

Sheppard said, "Whoa... let's talk about this."

"They're targeting people with the ATA gene," Sam said. "If Lieutenant Cadman, Ronon or I get captured, the worst thing that happens is we get taken to where Olivia and Captain French are. If you or Dr. McKay get captured, they would separate us. There's no guarantee we would be able to find you if they got you off-world."

"We could take care of ourselves, if push came to shove."

"Be that as it may," Sam said. "I'm making the call here. Return to the Gate and give McKay a chance to fix the dialer. Get these people home, then return to the base and wait for us to check-in. Say twenty-four hours. Lieutenant Cadman, Ronon and I will take care of the others. This is non-negotiable, Colonel."

Sheppard looked like he wanted to argue further, but eventually resigned and nodded. "All right. Come on, Lorne."

Sam and Cadman jumped down from the cart and helped the prisoners down. The clouds had dispersed slightly to let the sun peek out, but the rain was still pelting them. Lorne had spent the time Sheppard and Sam were debating to draw a rough map of the village. He handed the sketch to Sam. "The circular building in the center, marked with an 'x'. That's where they took Benson and French."

"Right. Thank you." Sam folded the note and stuck it in a pocket of her vest. "Cadman, Ronon, you're both with me."

Ronon glanced at Sheppard, as if for confirmation, and then shrugged and moved closer to Sam. She filled him in on their objective, rescuing the last two members of Lorne's team, and then they split up. Sam and Cadman took the lead, with Ronon slightly behind them bringing up the rear.

When the rain cleared a few minutes later, Sam removed the map and handed it to Cadman. "The house indicated is where they took the prisoners."

"Ah, middle of town," Cadman said. She handed the map to Ronon. "Guess they couldn't make it easy on us."

"They don't plan for prison breaks when they're building prisons," Ronon said. He gave the map back to Sam after a cursory glance.

Sam eyed him. "You okay?"

"Fine."

Sam shared a look with Cadman, but didn't say anything. Hopefully they would be in and out before Ronon's attitude became a problem. If not... well, she could burn that bridge when they got to it. 

#

The wind was knocked out of her as she was dumped onto the dirt floor. She sat up and looked around, vaguely amused at the fact she was being held in an honest-to-God dungeon. There were three people chained to the far wall, and Captain French was lying on the ground across from her. She straightened, put her back to the stone wall and watched as the guards disappeared up the narrow stone stairs.

"You okay, Captain?"

"A little bruised. Nothing I can't handle."

Olivia's hands hadn't been bound, and the guard hadn't bothered to empty out her vest. She reached up and snapped open the top-most pocket and began going through it to see what she had to facilitate a jailbreak. "It's no use," one of the natives said. "There's no chance of escape."

"You don't know us, sir," Captain French said. "We make a habit of this sort of thing."

Olivia grinned. "So I gathered from the mission reports."

There was a pause and then the prisoner said, "If... i-if you do manage to escape, would you take us with you?"

"So much for hopeless," Olivia said. To the prisoner, she said, "What are you in for?"

"I spoke against our leader. I believe that if we do not overcome our xenophobia, we will stand alone when the Wraith finally come for us. He... respectfully disagreed."

Olivia looked at the other people in the cell. "You're all political prisoners?"

"No," the man admitted. He nodded to the man next to him. "He was arrested for stealing bread to feed his family."

"Jean Valjean lives," Olivia mused. She nodded and continued going through her vest pockets. "All right. If we find something we can use to bust out of here, we'll take you with us."

Captain French said, "I forgot about these." He held up a few objects and smiled.

"What are those?" Olivia asked.

"Little something called 'flash-bang grenades.' You ever see one in action?"

Olivia shook her head. "Distraction material?"

"Oh, yeah," French said.

Olivia returned his smile. Things were looking up.

#

It felt like they had been walking for hours. The silence was partly strategic - it wouldn't do to sneak up on a village chattering back and forth to each other - but it was starting to press on Sam like a weight. She was about to ask Cadman a question - something about tap dancing, her experiences on Atlantis, anything to break the silence - when Sheppard's voice came over her radio.

"Colonel, we have a bit of a situation here..."

"What's up?" Sam asked. "Does McKay need help with the dialer?"

"No, he's gotten the DHD fixed up enough he's confident we can use it," Sheppard said. Sam's eyes widened; she would never admit it to McKay, but she was highly impressed with how quickly he had figured out that mess. "But I think our welcoming committee just arrived. Lots of people, most of them armed, most of them seem to be pretty good shots."

"Any injuries?"

"None yet, but if we try to hold the Gate..."

Sam didn't hesitate. "Take the other prisoners to the Alpha Site, you can relocate them from there."

"What about you?"

Sam checked her watch. "Thirty-five hours until the _Apollo_ arrives. We'll get our people out and keep our heads down until it shows up."

"You won't have back-up."

"Won't need it," Sam said. "Get yourselves and those people to safety."

"Yes, sir," Sheppard said. 

They walked on in silence until Ronon said, "Why 'sir'?"

Sam glanced over her shoulder at him. "Pardon?"

"Sheppard. Her, too. They call you 'sir.' But you're a ma'am."

"Sign of respect to a superior rank," Cadman said. "I'd prefer something feminine or asexual, sure, but change is slow and hard to come by. Especially in a military organization."

Sam nodded. "Well said, Lieutenant."

"Thank you, sir."

Sam chuckled and nodded down the path with her chin. "Hold up. Looks like we're close." They moved to the edge of the path and crouched down out of sight.

Cadman looked ahead and pulled a pair of binoculars from her pack. She saw smoke rising from a row of houses. The roofs were thatched, dark windows framed by ancient wood. A man in white trousers bent down and yanked a plant from his garden, tossed it aside and continued around the corner of his house. "Looks like business as usual," she said. She handed the binoculars to Sam.

Sam squinted through the eyepiece, then compared to Lorne's map. "Okay. This row of houses is about three streets over from where our people are being held. Here's the plan. I'm going to visit Council Faroh to make an official request for our people back."

"You think he'll be civil?" Cadman asked.

"He'll know I somehow made it to town despite his little sneak attack. He'll either play the innocent so I can be grabbed when I go back to the Stargate, or he'll have me arrested on the spot. Either way, I get to where Constable Benson and Captain French are. You and Ronon get into position and wait for my signal. Hopefully you'll only have to get them out, but if I get taken prisoner..."

"It'll be one more person on the inside," Ronon said. "Double-pronged attack."

"Exactly," Sam said. "Wait for my signal before you make a move. Give it a half hour."

Cadman nodded and Ronon seemed to give his assent without moving much at all. Sam resisted the urge to tell them to synchronize their watches as they rose and split up. Sam went to the other side of the path and waited until Ronon and Cadman disappeared into the trees. She straightened her jacket, looked either way and then started toward the town.

Before long, the path turned into a street, flanked on both sides by houses and businesses. People stopped what they were doing and watched the stranger walking into town, noted her unusual clothing and the weapon held casually by her side. When she reached a crossroad, she motioned to a nearby gawker and said, "I need to see Council Faroh immediately."

"His offices are this way." The man looked down at the gun and started down the street. Sam stayed close behind him and watched the other citizens carefully. She thought she saw a glimpse of Ronon's leather coat at one point, but she couldn't be sure and didn't dare draw attention to it. She removed the radio from her shoulder and put it into the pocket of her jacket.

The citizen led her to a narrow three-story building near where Lorne's map placed the prison. He stopped at the door and said, "I am not allowed within."

"That's all right. Thank you for your help." She stepped to the door and hesitantly opened it. The door opened onto an empty receiving floor, with twin staircases on either side leading up to a second story. Sam stepped into the doorway and peered up. "Council Faroh. This is Colonel Samantha Carter. I seek an immediate audience."

Faroh appeared at the head of the stairs and peered down at her. "Colonel Carter. You... are early."

Sam smiled at his near misstep. She had definitely rattled him. "I had some free time, and I didn't know how long it would take to reach the town. May I come up?"

"Ah, yes, of course." Faroh stepped to the head of the stairs. He wore what appeared to be a long dressing gown, cinched with a belt. His feet were bare, and he carried a walking stick that didn't touch the floor as she climbed the stairs to meet him. "I apologize, I am not prepared for our meeting."

"That's all right. I don't plan to stay long." She walked past him into a dark library with several curtained windows. At the far end of the room, a desk was turned to face the only open window. "I am here on behalf of the Atlantis expedition to formally request the return of the people we sent here for diplomatic purposes." Sam suddenly had a flash of General O'Neill saying " _Faroh, Faroh, let my people go_ " and was glad that she had a bit more restraint than he did.

"I am sorry, Colonel, but I--"

"I encountered a slave transport on my way here. My officers were being taken to the Stargate, presumably to be sold at auction to the highest bidder. Still want to deny they were here?"

Faroh ducked his chin and walked past her to his desk. "Ah. I see... am I to presume, then, that you released said prisoners?"

"Absolutely," Sam said.

"That is unfortunate." He opened a drawer on his desk and pressed a button. "I am sorry to see that you do not have the same advanced gene as the fellows you released. But there is still a very high price on the open market for comely females such as yourself."

Sam brought her gun up as security swarmed into the room behind her. "You really do not want to make an enemy of us, Council Faroh."

"You are interlopers," Faroh said as he took his seat. "Sooner or later, you will be forced from our little corner of the galaxy. The Genii, on the other hand, are here to stay." To the guards, he said, "Put her with the others. The buyers will be here soon."

One guard took Sam's weapon and the other pressed the barrel of his into her side. "Come with us."

Sam let the men escort her out of the room and down the stairs. They turned to the left, following Lorne's map, and started toward the prison. Sam pretended to stumble and moved her right hand against her hip. A flick of her wrist activated the radio and she said, "Sorry about that."

"Walk," the guard growled. He put a hand on her shoulder and shoved her forward.

"Guess I should be happy you guys haven't heard of handcuffs..."

"Shut up and walk," the same guard said.

When they reached the jail, the silent guard undid the latches on the door. She was pushed inside and nearly tumbled down a flight of stone steps. The guard caught her elbow at the last second before she went flying and waited as his companion flipped a switch. Lanterns were set into the wall every third step, but that left the majority of the stairwell in darkness. "Nice," Sam said. "Moody." 

The guard ignored her and urged her forward. She led the way down the steps half crouched to keep her head from brushing the slanted ceiling of the stairwell. The stairs led into a wide room with bare stone floors. Small oblong windows were cut high in the walls to let in light, but it didn't do much. Not that she wanted a clear view of the room. Beds ringed the walls, some of them hidden by curtains that hung from rings in the ceiling. 

In the far corner, three or four people were huddled together in a tight mass. Their heads rose at the sound of new arrivals, but then dropped back down to the safety of their gathered arms. Sam was about to ask why they were all huddled together that way when something exploded and burned her eyes. She and the guards all cried out and Sam bent the crook of her elbow against her eyes against the stinging tears.

There was a scuffle behind her, a shout and then a body hitting the ground. "Get the..." was silenced by another blow, flesh against flesh, and Sam blinked her eyes in a futile attempt to get her sight back. Someone grabbed her and Sam closed her fist around soft cloth. She spun her attacker into the wall, pinning their body with her own. She was about to attack blindly - something that had once led to her biting her CO's hand - when Olivia's voice said, "Sam?!"

"Liv," Sam gasped. She blinked, her vision slowly returning so that she could see the vague silhouette of Olivia's head against the darkness. Sam cupped Olivia's face, leaned in and kissed her briefly. "I'm here to rescue you."

"Little late," Olivia said. "But I appreciate the assist."

They separated and Sam looked blindly around the room. Blurry shapes moved through the shadows and Olivia said, "Captain French, the keys." Sam heard the jingling as the keys were tossed to the captain. "Is someone protecting the Stargate? I heard Faroh mention a welcoming party for your team."

"We lost the Gate," Sam said. "But the _Apollo_ is on the way to pick us up. It'll be here in..." She brought her watch up to her face out of habit, realizing only when her hand was up that she couldn't read the face. 

Olivia reached over, took Sam's hand and angled it so she could see the watch. "It's counting down from thirty."

"Thirty hours, then. Think we can evade these people for that long?"

"You're the expert," Olivia said.

Sam smiled and realized details were starting to come in; Olivia's eyes, her lips. It was just like waking up next to her. Sam fought back the shudder running down her spine and said, "All right, let's get out of here before Faroh misses his people." 

Captain French, a thin man with thinning blonde hair, dragged the unconscious guards over to one of the curtained beds. He chained them together using the restraints he'd taken from the other prisoners, then nodded to Olivia. "That's done."

"Come on," Sam said. She took the radio from her pocket and thumbed the mic as she started up the steps. "Ronon, Lieutenant Cadman. I have the prisoners and we're exiting the prison. We'll rendezvous on the eastern side of town."

"Acknowledged," Cadman said.

Sam and French stopped at the doorway and checked to make sure they could slip out unseen. Sam withdrew Lorne's map and passed it around. "Leave here, go to the left. You can use the narrow alleyways to keep from being seen. Keep your heads down and try to be as quiet as possible." She looked outside to make sure the coast was clear and held up three fingers. Three of the prisoners rushed through the door. "Go with them," Sam said to French. He nodded, looked both ways and followed the fleeing prisoners across the courtyard.

Olivia moved up next to the door and looked at Sam. "You came to save me."

Sam looked at her. "Of course."

Olivia smiled. "Just when I think you're a real person, you go and do some superhero thing and I get swept up all over again."

Sam smiled and wrinkled her nose. A man across the courtyard had stepped outside of his home or business and was adjusting the window shutters. When his back was turned, Sam nodded to Olivia. She left the darkness of the prison door and ran. Sam waited until the man was finished with the shutter and went back inside to go, a few feet behind Olivia.

They ducked into an alley, followed the path the other prisoners had taken. At the edge of town, Sam saw Lieutenant Cadman crouching next to a tree. Sam and Olivia joined the others in a copse of bushes and Cadman said, "Nice time. Zero to break-out in twenty minutes."

Sam shrugged. "After ten years, you learn some tricks."

"Plus she stumbled in on the middle of my break-out," Olivia said. "I decided to bring her along."

Cadman said, "Mighty thoughtful of you, Constable."

Ronon stood and said, "We're probably going to have company in a minute. We should find someplace more secure."

"Right," Sam said. "We should stay in the vicinity of the Stargate so the _Apollo_ will be able to lock onto us easily. We'll stick to the woods. Captain, Constable... did Faroh's guards leave you with rations and supplies?"

"Yeah," Olivia said. "Even our flash bangs, which you know... came in handy."

"Don't they know about jail breaks?"

One of the other prisoners said, "They know. They just don't care. The penalty for escaping is severe, and no one can evade them long enough to reach the Portal."

"What's the penalty?" Sam asked.

"Immediate execution." The prisoner shrugged. "It was an effective deterrent."

Ronon said, "They can only punish us if we get caught."

Sam nodded. "We have a benefit other prisoners didn't. We have a ship on the way. When it gets here, it will transport us up and take us safely away from here."

"In thirty hours," Ronon pointed out.

"It's doable," Sam said. "But only if we put some more distance between us and them. Come on." She reached out as if to steady herself against the tree, but in reality wanted to brush her hand against Olivia's. Their index fingers touched and quickly separated. "Ronon, you take point."

He agreed without comment, pushing his way through the underbrush. Sam glanced at Cadman and followed him. Olivia came behind Sam, then the other prisoners, with Cadman at the rear. They hadn't made it far before they heard a low, haunting whoop rise from the city they were leaving behind. One of the prisoners straightened and said, "That is the alarm. They know we have escaped."

"Then the chase is on," Sam said. 

#

Half an hour later, Ronon stopped them at a stream. He looked down the banks of the river and said, "We can wade across."

"In five," Sam said. "Take a breather."

"I don't need a breather."

"The rest of us do," Sam said, staring him down. What she meant was that Captain French was panting, and the prisoners they had helped escape were all about to fall down. 

Ronon didn't want to give in, but even he could see the non-combatants needed a rest. "We're getting lucky. These guys are being loud and obvious... they're not used to tracking in the woods. But we won't stay ahead of them for long, especially if we keep stopping to rest."

"And we won't get away from them at all if we're exhausted. We're stopping. That's final."

He clenched his jaw and finally said, "Fine. I'll see if I can find a way across."

Sam thought about denying the offer, but it would be better than having him stew. It would also be preferable to wading through the water and then spending the next day or so in wet underwear. So she nodded and said, "Check back in five minutes."

He turned without agreeing, but Sam had spent enough time with him to know he would. When she returned to the group, who had sprawled out immediately when it became apparent they were stopping, one of the prisoners said, "We cannot evade them forever, Colonel Carter."

"Not forever," Sam said. "Just a few more hours."

"Be that as it may..."

Sam held up a hand. "My people and I know a thing or two about evading capture."

Cadman said, "Believe her. She's been in more alien prisons than the rest of us put together."

Sam smiled and glanced at the sky. It was hard to tell with the clouds, but she thought the day had been getting steadily darker. "Any idea how long a day on this planet lasts?"

"It's been daylight since we arrived," French reported. "I'd say we're due for nightfall any time now."

"Okay. When Ronon gets back we'll consider setting up camp here for the night."

She pulled the pack off her vest and dropped it on the ground in front of her. "Lieutenant, your supplies..." Cadman added her pack to Sam's, and French dumped his as well. "We have emergency provisions. Olivia, see that the food gets divvied up evenly. We'll need enough to feed the seven of us for at least two meals."

"Shouldn't be a problem," Olivia said.

Sam stood up and said, "I'm going to track down Ronon and fill him in on the plan." Not to mention have a little talk with him about his attitude. "Lieutenant, you're in charge."

"Yes, sir."

Sam nodded to her and left them with their MREs. She moved in a slow jog, knowing she would have to go faster than normal to catch up to Ronon. She found him about two hundred yards away, kneeling next to the river with his hand in the water. She slowed and said, "Ronon."

He glanced up, flicked his fingers and stood to meet her halfway. "We'll never get across this thing without a bridge. The current is too strong."

"All right," Sam said. "We'll deal with that tomorrow. For tonight, we're camping back at the clearing."

"Camping?" Ronon said. His voice was near a growl.

"Including Detective Benson, we have four civilians back there," Sam reminded him. 

"Yeah. And four women."

Sam closed her eyes. It was time to cross the bridge. Metaphorically, anyway. "Do you believe, in this situation, that Sheppard would press on? We've put distance between us and our pursuers. If we have to run, we'll run. But we'll be better rested tomorrow if we stop now while we can. I'm making the call, same as Sheppard. Being a woman has nothing to do with it."

Ronon didn't look convinced, but he also didn't look like he was holding back a wall of water anymore, either. He walked past her and she watched him go. She heard a voice in her head, an echo from almost five years ago; "The female?" And then another voice, a familiar voice, said, "Major Carter is a formidable warrior." She took a deep breath and quickly blew it out. "Ah, Teal'c. Why couldn't you come with me to Atlantis? Kick people's asses when I needed you to?"

She shook her head and started after Ronon. She made a mental note to introduce him to her old friend as soon as an opportunity presented itself.

#

By the time Sam and Ronon returned to the camp, it had gotten dark enough that they could safely assume night was upon them. Since they couldn't build a fire without their pursuers spotting it, Olivia had set up a hot plate to warm their rations. Sam spotted Olivia at the edge of the campsite under a tree and walked over to her. "Was there enough food?"

"Should be," Olivia said as she handed Sam her plate. She watched Ronon stalk across the campsite. "Did you have a talk?"

"We spoke," Sam said. She sat down next to Olivia and stretched her legs out, crossing them at the ankles. Olivia shifted slightly, bringing herself closer to Sam without making it obvious what she was doing. "How are you doing?"

Olivia shrugged. "Fine. Considering I got kidnapped and held hostage."

"Can't say I never took you anywhere," Sam said softly.

Olivia chuckled. "Nope. Definitely can't say that." She looked up and examined their makeshift camp. The rest of the prisoners were huddled together under a tree, taking comfort in their combined numbers. Lieutenant Cadman and Captain French were filling water bottles from the stream and Ronon was... had it been anyone else, Olivia would have called it pouting. But they were all focused on their own problems. Olivia moved her hand down against her thigh, reached over and took Sam's hand.

"What..."

"Shh," Olivia said. She threaded her fingers with Sam's, but kept her index finger straight. She pressed the tip of her finger against Sam's, hard, and Sam pressed back. If they had agreed a fleeing touch was like a kiss, this was full-blown making-out. Sam angled her wrist, pressed her palm against Olivia's. Olivia squeezed and brushed her thumb over the back of Sam's hand. Sam slid her hand forward and looked up, found Olivia looking at her. 

Sam exhaled and relaxed her hand. "Why..."

"Because I'm going to assault you if we don't stop," Sam whispered with a sly grin. 

"What, you've never had sex off-world?"

Sam blushed. It had been before Janet, during the opening years of the Stargate program. Young, naïve Captain Carter had been shocked at how Daniel Jackson could have accepted a woman as a gift. Then she had been in a cabana, the honored guest of a sultana. She had been bedding down for the night, amused that the men were regulated to sleeping bags outside of the main palace grounds, when the curtains parted and their hostess stepped into the sleeping chamber.

She had tried to say no, but her mind was filled with 'diplomatic incidents' and worries that feelings would be hurt. By the time she was thinking clearly, her uniform pants were halfway down her legs and the beautiful cinnamon-skinned sultana was spreading her legs. And Sam had laid back and enjoyed the 'gifts.' 

After that, her off-world liaisons had been reduced to romantic getaways with Janet, then random fucks to take the edge off once Vala joined the team, and then... well, technically every relationship she had on Atlantis was 'off-world.' Her trysts with Keller and her encounters with Olivia were all taking place on an alien planet, after all.

"Yeah," Sam said in response to Olivia's question. "Once or twice."

Olivia looked toward the common area and saw Cadman walking toward them. She didn't move an inch, but her entire body language shifted in a heartbeat. She focused on the food in her lap as Cadman stopped a few feet in front of Sam. "Colonel. I've drawn up a watch rotation. I'll be taking first watch, then Ronon, then you, and Captain French."

"Sounds good. Thank you, Lieutenant."

Cadman nodded and left the women alone again.

Olivia said, "She, um..."

Sam lifted an eyebrow. "Yeah?

"I don't know if I should tell you."

"Oh, well, now you have to tell me."

"I saw Dr. Keller leaving her quarters the other night. When I was leaving your quarters."

Sam lifted her chin. "Ahh. And you think the visits may have had the same motives?"

Olivia said, "If that good-night kiss I saw was anything to judge by."

Sam arched an eyebrow. "Nice."

Olivia cleared her throat and pushed away from the tree. "Is it against regulations if I go take a walk, or do I need a babysitter?"

"If you don't mind the expedition leader being your babysitter..."

Olivia smiled and held her hands out. She helped Sam up and Sam brushed off the seat of her pants. She flagged down Cadman and said, "We're going to take a quick walk around the perimeter."

"Don't go too far," Cadman said.

Sam sketched a salute and motioned for Olivia to follow her. Olivia ducked under a branch and looked back at the rest of their group. "They won't suspect anything?"

"Bathroom breaks," Sam said. "Leg stretching... There are a lot of reasons to slip away from camp for five minutes."

Olivia reached out and took Sam's hand. Sam stopped, looked at their hands and let Olivia pull her back. Sam chuckled as Olivia kissed her. "Five minutes?" Olivia asked.

"Maybe ten," Sam said. She stepped closer and pressed herself to Olivia. "Fifteen... if we have trouble with... indigenous wildlife..."

Olivia silenced Sam with another kiss. "We should move farther away," Sam whispered when she came up for air.

"I'll be quiet..."

"You can't," Sam said. "Trust me, Liv, you can't..."

Olivia whimpered and said, "All right. But quickly."

They moved as quickly and quietly as they could through the foliage. Sam kept looking down at Olivia's ass in her uniform trousers, the way the material bunched and sagged as she moved over the wildly fluctuating landscape. When they reached a treeless plateau, Olivia turned and said, "Here?"

"Yeah," Sam said. She pressed her body against Olivia's again and kissed her hard. "Clothes stay on," she said.

"Yes, sir," Olivia gasped. She smiled as Sam moaned, and looked down to undo the catches of Sam's trousers. "Lay me down," she said.

Sam lowered Olivia to the ground and settled on top of her. They kissed as Olivia pushed Sam's pants open and worked her hand inside Sam's underwear. Sam moved her lips to Olivia's cheek, along her jaw line. Olivia brought her leg up and hooked it on Sam's hip, working her fingers between Sam's legs. "I knew you would come for me," Olivia breathed into Sam's ear.

"I'm going to come for you again if you're not... careful," Sam panted. She dug her knees into the soft peat below them and thrust against Olivia's hand. 

Olivia moaned and nipped at Sam's earlobe. "I love you."

"I love you, too," Sam said. "We never... say that outside of..."

"We don't have to."

Sam raised her head and looked into Olivia's eyes. "I do, though."

"I know."

Sam tried to keep eye contact as she thrust against Olivia's hand. Her eyes betrayed her, though, and drifted shut. She rocked gently against Olivia, and then more insistently. "I'm going to... come, Olivia..."

Olivia kissed Sam's neck and said, "Come for me, Sam..."

Sam shuddered and bit down on the shoulder of Olivia's jacket. She worked it with her teeth to stifle the cry that wanted to break free, and finally slumped against Olivia. After a few seconds, she said, "Oh. Right. On the clock... your turn..."

They rolled until Sam was on bottom and Olivia was sitting in her lap. Olivia arched her back to undo her pants as Sam licked three fingers. Olivia gasped as Sam's hand worked its way into her underwear, and she slumped forward. She unzipped her jacket and pulled it open. "Breast," she said. "My breast..."

Sam bowed her head and kissed Olivia's breast through her shirt and bra. She used her teeth and tongue to excite the nipple, timing her tongue's movements to her fingers between Olivia's legs. Olivia grinded into Sam's hand and threw her head back. "That's... yeah, Sam, yes..."

"Shush," Sam hissed.

Olivia looked down at her again. "Oh, is that what you were..."

"Yes," Sam said. "Now shh... shh, baby..."

Olivia smiled and stroked Sam's cheek. She leaned down and kissed Sam's lips, then rested her head on Sam's shoulder. She parted her lips and swept her tongue across Sam's throat. Sam grunted in approval and tilted her head to give Olivia unimpeded access. Her eyelids cracked and she glanced back toward camp.

Twenty feet away, Laura Cadman froze, half-hidden behind a tree. Her eyes were wide, her face nearly as red as her hair. Her one visible hand was shaking, the other tucked between her thighs. They stared at each other for a long moment before Cadman's eyelids fluttered. Sam closed her eyes and turned her head. Her lips tickled Olivia's earlobe. "Cadman's watching us..."

Olivia murmured.

"I think she's touching herself..."

"Yeah?" Olivia said. She lifted her head and kissed the corner of Sam's mouth. "You want to ask her to join us?"

Sam smiled, then realized Olivia was serious. She smiled and whispered, "No. Not this time." She kissed Olivia's lips and circled Olivia's clit with her thumb. She lifted her hips and pressed against the heel of her hand. "Ready?"

Olivia breathed, "Yeah. Fuck me..."

Sam thrust her lower body against Olivia, and both of them groaned. Olivia went rigid, her breath coming in ragged gasps and hitches as Sam's thumb continued to brush her oversensitive clit. "Stop, stop," Olivia said, and Sam's hand stopped moving. When Sam withdrew her hand, she looked into the forest and saw Cadman had disappeared. 

They kissed lazily and Olivia said, "Do we have to get back?"

"I think Laura will cover for us. For a little while, at least."

They sank together against the moss, and Olivia shifted herself until her head was on Sam's shoulder. Sam reached down with one hand, the other wrapped around Olivia's shoulders, and realigned their clothes so they could be up and ready at a moment's notice. She kissed Olivia's temple and then turned her attention to the sky.

It was violet-blue, deep like velvet with thousands of stars from horizon to horizon. A sheet of white clouds, thin as threads, moved slowly overhead, lit from behind by the half-moon. A black silhouette, monkey-like in shape, swung from one tree to the next. Olivia said, "I love being here. Off-world. Any alien world. I don't really notice it on Atlantis because, as alien as it can be, Atlantis is still just one step removed. But out here... listening to noises I know aren't made by familiar animals... seeing stars that the people I spent my whole life with have never seen..."

"It's daunting," Sam said. "And humbling. I've really, really missed being a part of an off-world team. And as odd as it may sound, I'm grateful for this opportunity to get back out there, get my hands dirty again. Even under these circumstances. After my former CO took over command of the SGC, we brought him along on a mission. At one point, villagers were holding crossbows on us, had us completely surrounded, and his reaction was how much he missed being off-world. I understand now. It's an amazing thing, to sleep under an alien sky."

"Yeah," Olivia said. She looked at Sam and cupped her face, forcing Sam to look down at her. "Thank you," she said, "for giving me this. I can... I can never..."

"You're welcome," Sam said. She squeezed Olivia's hand and said, "But you're not staying. Are you?"

"I don't know," Olivia said softly. 

Sam kissed her lips. "Don't stay for me."

"I won't. I just need time to think it out. I have to... I have to figure out where I belong. And you've given me the best opportunity to look at it from all angles. I don't have to be a cop, or a detective. I just need to find what makes me happy."

"I hope you find what you're looking for," Sam said. "Even if it's not me."

Olivia closed her eyes and rested her head on Sam's chest.

After a few moments, there was a burst of static. Laura Cadman's voice came from Sam's vest. "Colonel Carter, come in."

"Go ahead, Lieutenant," Sam said. She and Olivia sat up as one, and straightened their clothes. Sam reached up and plucked a twig from Olivia's hair.

"Ronon and I were on patrol and he spotted a group of searchers about half a klick from our position. He suggested we move, and I agree."

"As do I," Sam said. "Constable Benson and I will be back in a moment."

She disconnected and Olivia nodded at the radio. "Was she really watching us?"

"Of course. Why would I have said it otherwise?"

"To get me hot."

Sam stood up and held out a hand for Olivia. "So you're open to a threesome?"

"I've done it in the past," Olivia said, visions of a blonde and a redhead sharing a kiss over her stomach, remembering two fine-boned hands sliding up her thighs to... she shuddered and focused on Sam. "Yeah. I'd be open."

"I'll keep that in mind," Sam said. She made sure Olivia's backside was clear, and then Olivia returned the favor. They made sure to stay a professional distance apart as they returned to the camp.

#

They moved as quietly as possible along the stream, pausing when Ronon indicated the search party was growing near. Olivia was near the back of the line, helping Cadman to keep the prisoners quiet. Several times during their trek, however, she found herself staring at Sam. The Colonel was in charge now, staying right behind Ronon and whispering orders to him. Every now and then she made a hand motion and Ronon would nod his understanding.

 _My lover is giving orders to an alien soldier so other alien soldiers won't capture us. Amazing._ She shook her head and focused on the task at hand. The shushing of the water in the stream was loud enough to mask any inadvertent sounds their convoy made through the forest. Unfortunately, it also helped mask the sounds of their pursuers. Fortunately Ronon had ears like a bat. When he stopped, Sam held up a hand to hold up the convoy. When he changed course, Sam followed without question.

They climbed a rise and Ronon turned at the top to help everyone else up. He gripped Olivia's wrist and practically hauled her up onto the plateau. "You okay?"

"Fine," she said. Sam joined Ronon at the edge and peered down at the forest they had just left. Olivia asked, "Do you think they're still coming?"

"I know they are," Ronon said. He looked around and walked to a fallen log. He looked behind it, tested the weight and said, "Back up."

Sam took Olivia's elbow and guided her back. "Give him room," Sam said to Cadman, French and the prisoners. Ronon braced one foot against a stone, wrapped both arms around the log and leaned backward. He used his entire body like a lever, grunting quietly as he moved the log. Leaves that had long since turned to mulch and piles of dirt gathered by bugs and various forest creatures dripped from the back side of the log, thousands of small black object scurried out into the night and disappeared into the trees. Sam jerked to one side and kicked her foot out to divert a few bugs that had been aiming for her foot. 

"You don't like bugs?" Olivia asked.

"Alien bugs," Sam said. "I had a bad experience."

As Ronon moved the log, the entire side of the mountain seemed to shift. Sam followed the hill as far as she could in the darkness and said, "Ah... Ronon?"

He grunted a reply and stepped to the side when he had the log far enough out. He did a half-step jig to the left, then bounded to the right just as the rocks which had been held back for years, decades, centuries found themselves free to continue a long-delayed rockslide. Sam and Olivia covered their faces as the cascade picked up speed until it was rolling like the stream below.

When the earthquake-like roar ceased, the incline they had just ascended was covered with a loose layer of ancient stones. "Nice work," Sam said. 

Ronon nodded and looked around. He pointed westward. "That way."

"How long until the ship gets here?" Olivia asked.

Sam checked her watch. "Twenty hours."

Olivia resisted the urge to sigh. It was going to be a long day.

#

Something soft brushed her cheek and Olivia jerked slightly. "Hey," Sam whispered. "It's all right. It's just me. You fell asleep."

Olivia sat up and looked around. She vaguely remembered Sam convincing Ronon to stop for the night and sitting down with her back to a tree. It had been almost midnight, Earth time, and she hadn't slept for almost thirty-two hours. She wiped her eyes and rearranged herself on the soft ground. It was still dark, but that could mean anything. "How long was I out?"

"Only about twenty minutes," Sam whispered. "Ronon is scouting ahead."

Olivia looked around the camp. Cadman and French were both dozing, but could obviously be up and alert at a moment's notice. The prisoners were all out like lights. "Did you sleep?" Olivia asked.

"I'm fine."

"Rest," Olivia said. "I'll keep watch."

Sam looked at Olivia, focused on her dark eyes and her lips. Finally she nodded and said, "Wake me when Ronon comes back."

"Okay."

Sam put her head on Olivia's shoulder and her breathing evened out almost immediately. Olivia rested her cheek against the top of Sam's head and looked around the clearing again. The trees were just like back home, not that she had spent a lot of time in the country. There had been a handful of times with Alex, at a rented cabin, but her focus on those weekends had not been nature. But she knew Earth creatures well enough to know that none of them made sounds like what she was hearing. She was surrounded by an entirely alien ecosystem, no matter how familiar it looked.

The reason she had finally turned in her letter of resignation to Cragen and told Sam she would come to Atlantis full-time is because her eyes had finally been opened. She knew aliens existed, she knew that the combined forces of several countries had successfully repelled several attempted invasions... how could she go back to chasing rapists and child molesters after that? How could she possibly live with the knowledge and be cut off from it?

More importantly, there was Sam. Sam was on Atlantis, so that's where Olivia wanted... no, needed to be. She loved Sam deeper than she had loved anything in a long time. And Sam had rescued her like an angel during a dark and dreary time. Olivia no longer took any joy from her job. The thrill of taking a rapist off the street paled against the anguish of seeing yet another victimized child who would never be the same again. Olivia had been wondering how much longer she could live with herself before she either went crazy or started taking matters into her own hands. Sam had descended like an angel, offering her an alternative. 

Constable Olivia Benson, chief of security for the city of Atlantis. It still felt weird to say out loud. It brought to mind legendary visions of kings and princesses and slaying dragons. Not mountains of paperwork and breaking up minor scuffles in the mess hall. There wasn't much beer on the base, let alone a bar, so she didn't even have to deal with drunk and disorderly arrests. It was like she had been demoted to being a beat cop in Bunghole, Idaho. 

But Sam was there. That was worth all the boredom in the world. For the moment, at least. The problem was that if Olivia stayed too long, she might not acclimate well to returning to Earth. There would be a chance that she wouldn't fit in at either place, and she would be adrift once more. She had to make her decision soon, but neither option seemed right.

Olivia looked down at Sam's face, relaxed in sleep, and brushed her thumb across Sam's bottom lip. Sam's eyelids fluttered and then opened. "Oh," Olivia said. "I'm sorry."

"It's okay," Sam said.

"I love you." Sam blinked and sat up. Olivia smiled. "I thought I would go ahead and say it while we weren't..."

"I love you, too," Sam said. She lifted her head and kissed the corner of Olivia's mouth, not trusting herself for anything more. She pulled back and looked around the camp. "Ronon?"

"You were only asleep for about five minutes."

Sam shrugged. "I've functioned on less."

She stood up and stretched. A moment later, Ronon came through the trees. Olivia was impressed; she hadn't heard any indication he was coming. "We've got a problem," he said without preamble. 

"What is it?" Sam asked. Cadman and French awoke at the sound of voices and stood up to join the group.

"They're using lamps to search while it's dark. I saw two search parties closing in from the east, two more from the west. They're trying to squeeze us toward the river."

"Can we slip between them?"

Ronon shook his head. "They're spread out too well. We can't slip between them without being seen."

Sam sighed and said, "They want to pin us against the river... and you're sure we can't cross it?"

"It would sweep us away."

Olivia was looking up at the trees. "Has anyone seen any monkeys?"

Ronon, Sam and Cadman all looked at her like she was insane. "What?" Sam asked.

Olivia stepped away from the group and scanned the trees. "I saw a monkey earlier. It jumped from one tree to the next. But I haven't seen a single monkey otherwise. Ronon?"

He stepped forward and scanned the trees carefully. Finally, he pointed. "There."

"Where?" Sam said.

He lowered his shoulder so she could follow the line of his arm. "Through the leaves. About fifteen feet up."

Sam and Olivia spotted the monkey at the same time. Its face was black, ringed with red fur. It turned its head sideways when it realized they were watching it, turned and leapt for another branch. It disappeared from sight almost immediately. "How did it do that?" Sam asked.

"These branches form a lattice," Ronon said. "It creates camouflage for anything in the trees. Or anyone." He walked to the base of one tree, grabbed a low branch and pulled himself up. Seconds later, he was out of sight amid the patchwork of green and brown. Olivia thought she could still see the sky, but it must have been an optical illusion since the Satedan was completely invisible.

When he spoke again, his voice seemed to come from thin air. "Actually, nature had a hand."

"How so?" Sam said.

Ronon dropped from the trees. "There are platforms up there. They're made out of reflective surfaces."

"Do you think the monkeys made them?" French asked, drawing an irritated look from Ronon. "Hey, it's a good question. These monkeys might not be like Earth's."

"They're remnants. From a war or..."

"Duck blinds," Sam said. "On Earth, hunters sometimes set up platforms in the trees so they won't frighten away the animals they're hunting. This could be something similar." She walked to the tree and looked at the prisoners. She lowered her voice and asked Cadman, "Can they climb?"

"To save their lives? Definitely."

Sam turned to Ronon. "Will we all fit up there?"

"There're several blinds. We can spread people out."

"Excellent. Let's get the prisoners up first. Captain French, you stay with them."

French nodded and climbed the tree. He was only slightly less dexterous as Ronon, but disappeared just as quickly. "Okay," he called down. "Send them up."

Sam and Cadman helped the prisoners climb the tree, catching each of them when they inevitably slipped. "It's all right. Just go slowly. Captain French will lend you a hand when you get up there."

Ronon moved to the next tree and climbed up. He dropped back down and said, "Another one here." 

They made sure French and the prisoners were secure before moving to the next tree. Ronon led the way up, followed by Cadman. Sam motioned for Olivia to go up and followed quickly behind.

The platform was a shallow dish, connected to the trunk of the tree by metal brackets. There was a gap between the dish and the tree just wide enough for them to crawl through, and Ronon helped Sam onto the raised area. Long metal arms designed to blend into the surrounding trees stretched out underneath them, and the bowl of the platform was filled with fallen leaves and forest silt. Sam ignored what must be in the leaves and twigs, given the fact that monkeys had led them up here, and crossed to the clear area where Olivia and Cadman were crouching.

Ronon climbed back down and, a moment later, Sam said, "What do you see?"

"I see you and Cadman," he said. "But I'm looking for you."

Sam reached up and grabbed a handful of thick branches. She tugged, jerked and twisted until they broke off. She laid them out around them, forming a cushion for them to sit on. "Good," Ronon said from below. She heard him move to the other tree and give French instructions to block himself and the prisoners as well. 

Cadman cleared her throat and said, "Colonel, now that we have a moment, I wanted to apologize for..."

"Don't worry about it, Lieutenant," Sam said.

Cadman glanced at Olivia and said, "I didn't want things to be awkward."

"It's all right. No harm, no foul. I assume I can count on you for discretion..."

"Of course."

Sam shrugged. "So there's no problem."

Cadman sighed, obviously relieved, and sagged against the tree. Olivia, between Sam and the lieutenant, said, "Besides, now we're even."

"Oh?"

"I saw you and Dr. Keller the other night on the base."

"Oh," Cadman said. She grinned and said, "Yeah."

Ronon returned and grabbed a handful of branches to make his own cushion. He sat down cross-legged, hands resting on his knees, and stared straight ahead. Sam watched him for a moment and said, "Are you all right?"

"Yeah, fine."

"I know you would rather fight than..."

"Quiet."

"Ronon..."

"Quiet," Ronon hissed. Sam realized he had heard something and went still. She looked down through the web of branches. After a few moments, she heard movement through the brush. A man stepped around the tree trunk with a gun resting against his forearm. Sam saw Ronon tense, but he stayed where he was. The man moved slowly, but not carefully. He stepped on a twig, caught his sleeve on a clump of bark and he pulled it free with a muttered curse.

He didn't look terribly interested in finding who he was looking for. Sam only hoped the rest of the search party was as apathetic as this man. 

Once the man was gone, Sam waited ten minutes before she looked at Ronon. She mouthed, "Clear?"

Ronon climbed off his perch, scuttled down the trunk and did a quick, quiet reconnaissance. He returned to the tree. "We're clear."

"Okay," Sam said. "Let's get moving."

They descended from the tree and waited for French to get the prisoners down. "Which way now?" French asked.

Sam said, "They'll reach the stream soon enough and realize we didn't go that way. We should put as much distance between us and them." She nodded the direction they had come. "We head back toward town."

One of the prisoners said, "That's suicide!"

"It's our only option now. And keep your voice down. We don't want them turning back any sooner than necessary. Ronon?"

He led the way without question. Sam, Olivia and the others followed him and, reluctantly, the people Sam had helped free from the prison fell into step. 

As they walked, the distance between each person slowly grew. Soon, Sam found herself walking with Olivia through a clearing with grass that reached their waist. Cadman was a few yards behind, Ronon almost out of sight ahead. Sam lowered her voice and said, "That was a pretty impressive idea you had. With the monkeys."

Olivia shrugged. "It just came to me."

"And, uh... when did you spot the monkey?"

Olivia smiled and didn't answer.

"Aha. I thought so." She chuckled and said, "Looks like what we did was of strategic mission importance after all."

"Just don't make it a requisite for off-world travel."

Sam arched an eyebrow. "I don't know. Some of the rumors I've heard about off-world teams..."

"Rumors," Olivia scoffed. "You were on one of those off-world teams for ten years. I'll bet you have a few stories of 'strategic mission importance.'"

A vision of Vala with her uniform trousers around her thighs flashed in Sam's mind. She pursed her lips and shook her head. "Nah. No, nothing I can..." Her radio crackled. Sam stopped in her tracks and whistled. Ahead, Ronon stopped, turned and started back. Sam squeezed the mic of her radio and said, "This is Colonel Carter."

_"Colonel, good to hear your voice."_

Sam grinned. "Colonel Ellis. You're early."

"Sheppard and his team managed to contact us, let us know what your situation was. We pushed the engines a little."

"Glad to hear it," Sam said. "We have three refugees to transport, along with myself, Lieutenant Cadman, Captain French and Ronon. Lock onto our transmitter beacons and the three closest life-signs." 

"Stand by, Colonel." 

Sam turned to look toward the tree line.

"What?" Olivia asked. 

Sam shook her head. "It just seems wrong. I feel like the search party should find and rush at us right before we get beamed up."

Cadman smirked. "Do you want to tell Ellis to wait five minutes?"

Sam chuckled. "No. I'm just fine with--" The forest shimmered and was replaced by a plain gray wall. She turned and saw Colonel Ellis smiling at her from the command chair. "Nice to see you all in one piece."

"Thank you," Sam said. She stepped onto the command platform and said, "Open a channel to Council Faroh."

The captain seated to Ellis' right made an adjustment. "Channel is open, Colonel."

Sam turned to face the view screen, despite a lack of visual contact. "Council Faroh, this is Colonel Samantha Carter. We have attempted to enter civil relations with your people and have been met with hostility at every turn. Our most recent attempt led to our people being imprisoned with the threat of being sold to the highest bidder. 

"Suffice to say, we are now ceasing diplomatic entreaties with your people. What this means is we will no longer attempt to create a relationship between our peoples. We will not establish trade, we will not offer assistance should the Wraith or Replicators arrive on your doorstep. We understand that this means we will not be able to rely on you for food or refuge, but... I'm sure that we're getting the better terms of this deal. I wish you luck."

She turned to the captain and nodded for him to kill the signal. 

"Nice," Olivia said when Sam rejoined her.

"Really?" Sam said. "I thought it stank a little of 'you won't have Atlantis to kick around anymore.'"

"Well, that too," Olivia said. She chuckled and nudged Sam's elbow.

To Ellis, Sam said, "Set a course back to Atlantis. And see that our visitors have a place to sleep."

"Course has been set," the navigator replied.

"Colonel," the communications officer said. "Council Faroh is requesting a conversation."

Sam stopped at the door, turned around and said, "Hang up on him. Or the equivalent."

The captain smiled. "Yes, ma'am."

"Colonel Ellis?" Sam said. "There's no need to push the engines on the return to Atlantis. Just a nice casual pace is fine."

"You've got it, Colonel."

#

There was a chime, and she was determined to ignore it as long as possible. The bathtubs on the _Apollo_ were small, not aesthetically pleasing, and had sharp edges that a bather needed to keep her eyes on, but once the tiny oval cavity had been filled with warm bubble bath scented with strawberries, it didn't matter what it looked like. Sam had her feet up on the far end of the tub, her heels protected by a folded towel. The bubbles reached mid-chest, and just below her knees, the rest of her blissfully...

The chime sounded again. Sam sighed and lifted her head from the rolled-up robe serving as her pillow. "Yes?"

"Sam?"

"Olivia. Come in."

She heard the door open and said, "I'm in here. Lock the door."

There was a pause, and then Olivia appeared in the doorway. She smiled, leaned against the wall and looked down at the bubble bath. "Well. It's good to be king."

Sam smiled and sank back against her pillow. "I don't know what you're talking about. Rub my feet."

Olivia sat on the edge of the tub and moved Sam's feet to her lap. "Colonel Ellis says we'll reach Atlantis in five hours, give or take."

"Nice," Sam said. She watched Olivia's fingers work against the arches of her feet. She closed her eyes and sighed. "Give and take. That was how our relationship started."

"Yeah," Olivia said. "It was, wasn't it? I was so... resentful that you were swooping in and taking over my case."

"And now?"

Olivia pressed her knuckle into the arch of Sam's foot. "You can swoop me any time."

Sam smiled. Olivia lifted one foot and pressed her lips to the big toe. Sam chuckled, turned her head and pressed her chin against her shoulder. Olivia smiled as she watched the skin from Sam's chest to her throat quickly turn red. "She can still blush," Olivia said quietly.

"Shut up," Sam said. She laughed and pulled her foot from Olivia's hand. She rearranged herself in the tub and said, "Do my back."

Olivia stood up and unfastened her trousers.

"What are you doing?"

"This is how I do someone's back," Olivia said. She kicked off her shoes and pushed her pants down. Sam leaned forward and hugged her knees to her chest, watching Olivia undress. She waited until Olivia had her shirt off and was bent over, folding it on the closed toilet seat, to say, "You know, you probably won't fit in here with me." She tilted her head to admire the curve of Olivia's ass, wondering where on Atlantis she lay out so she wouldn't have tan lines.

"I've been in bathtubs of New York City apartments with women. I can make this work," Olivia promised her. She walked to the tub and Sam scooted forward. Olivia sat behind her, spread her legs apart and crouched. She eased Sam forward and hissed as her calves were pinched between Sam's side and the side of the tub.

"See?" Sam said.

Olivia wrapped an arm around Sam's waist and pulled her the rest of the way. Sam felt Olivia's breasts against her back and wrapped her arm around Olivia's bent right leg. She turned her head, smiled and said, "Hi."

Olivia chuckled. "Hi."

Sam kissed Olivia's lips and said, "We should try this at my house on Earth..."

"You keep a house on Earth?"

"Mm-hmm," Sam said. Her eyes were closed again, her lips moving against Olivia's cheek as she spoke. "Teal'c is house-sitting for me."

"Teal'c?"

"Yeah. It makes him feel close to me. Apparently we were married."

Olivia frowned, but was finding it hard to focus. The bathwater was making her sleepy. "When was this?"

"Last year," Sam said. "Don't be jealous. We hadn't renewed our relationship at that point. And it had been twenty years since I saw you when Teal'c and I first slept together."

"Twenty years?"

Sam grinned. "Long story. I'll tell you the parts I know someday."

"Mm," Olivia murmured. She dipped her hand into the water, brought it up and trailed it over Sam's breast. Sam's nipple rose to meet Olivia's passing fingers and she gave it a gentle twist. 

Sam gasped and squirmed against Olivia. "That's not fair..."

"Sue me," Olivia said. She moved her lips to Sam's ear and whispered, "I know a lawyer who could give you a real spanking..."

Sam whimpered.

Olivia kissed the shell of Sam's ear and kept sliding her hand lower. She cupped Sam's mound, spread her labia with two fingers and dipped the middle finger back. Sam took a deep breath and released it in waves. "Do you like that?"

"Yeah," Sam said.

Olivia curled her fingers and brushed the heel of her hand against Sam's clit. She remembered her thoughts of the last time she had been with Sam, the head-trip of her lover being so powerful. Now she knew the real aphrodisiac; when Sam gave up her power. When Sam let herself be naked and vulnerable to Olivia's touch. She kissed Sam's temple, the long curled hair tickling her nose and eyelashes.

"Do you want me to stroke your clit?" Olivia asked, her voice a rough whisper, "or do you want me inside?"

"Clit," Sam said, and then swallowed hard.

Olivia folded her fingers into a point, using her thumb to urge Sam's clitoris forward. She rolled her fingers, wet with the bathwater, across the sensitive bud and Sam sucked in a harsh breath through clenched teeth.

"Yeah?"

"Uh-huh," Sam managed.

Olivia bent her head and kissed Sam's neck. She slowly rolled her fingers, picking up a gentle rhythm, and then stopped. Sam whimpered and said, "Please..."

"Okay, baby," Olivia whispered. She stroked harder and Sam began to rock against her. Olivia moved her lips back to Sam's ears. "I wish this was my tongue... rolling over your clit... sucking it... I wish I had my tongue in you, Sam. To taste you... my hero..."

Sam grunted, arched her back and squeezed her thighs around Olivia's hand. Sam exhaled sharply, trembled and then collapsed against Olivia's body. The water washed back and forth around them, threatening to splash over the edges onto the floor. Sam turned her head and found Olivia's lips, kissed her hard and rolled until she was on her stomach. "What are you doing?" Olivia asked against Sam's mouth, Sam's tongue forcing its way forward.

"I'm going to fuck you..."

"Yeah?" Olivia lifted her legs and rested her right foot on the edge of the tub. Sam sank between her thighs and settled against Olivia's body. She reached up and gripped the edge of the tub on either side of Olivia's head. Olivia shivered. This was also a power-aphrodisiac... being taken, without hesitation or question. Sam lifted one hand and brushed Olivia's hair out of her face, shifted her weight and lowered herself onto Olivia's thigh. Olivia reached up and around Sam's head, undoing the loose bun Sam had her hair in. The blonde waves collapsed onto her shoulders and Olivia whispered, "Beautiful..."

They looked into each other's eyes as Sam slid forward. "Oh," Sam gasped. She took Olivia's hand, guided it to her breast and Olivia cupped it reverently. She pinched the nipple lightly and squeezed, sighing when Sam arched her back. Sam licked her lips, pressed her thigh against Olivia and said, "Ready?"

All Olivia could do was nod.

Sam braced her hands against the wall and rocked her hips forward. Olivia put her free hand on Sam's hip, guiding her movements. This time, the water did wash over the side. Sam didn't notice or care. She was too focused on Olivia's expression, on the way their bodies came together and sent shockwaves through her. Olivia kept her eyes open as much as possible, watching Sam tower over her, taking her own pleasure. This was what Olivia wanted, more than anything, maybe. She said, "Kiss me..."

Sam bowed her head and kissed Olivia hard. Olivia squeezed her eyes shut, dropped her right foot and wrapped her legs tight around Sam's. "Samantha..."

"Are you going to come?"

"Yes..."

Sam moved her hands from the wall down Olivia's chest, cupped her breast and thumbed the nipples. "Oh, fuck me, Sam, fuck..."

Sam raised her hands and cupped Olivia's face, brushed her thumb over Olivia's lip and moaned when it slipped into her mouth. Olivia sucked, and opened her eyes to see Sam's reaction. Her hair was in her eyes, the tips wet from brief contact with the water. "Olivia..." 

Olivia bit down on Sam's thumb, arched her back and cried out as she came. Sam gasped, straightened, and held on until Olivia relaxed. When Olivia opened her mouth, Sam withdrew her thumb and examined it to make sure it was still intact. "Sorry," Olivia said. "Are you okay?"

"Just some teeth marks," Sam assured her. She smiled, bent down and kissed the corner's of Olivia's mouth. "Completely my fault."

"At least you admit it," Olivia said. She grinned and brushed Sam's cheek, then turned and kissed her thumb. "Sorry."

"It's okay. It's been a long time since I had a love bite."

Olivia nodded and looked at the tub. "I didn't really think we would both fit in here..."

Sam laughed. "Well, now we know. For future reference."

"Yeah," Olivia said. She tried to avoid Sam's gaze, but was spared when Sam lowered her head to rest her cheek against Olivia's shoulder. Olivia dipped her hand into the water, which was only just now starting to calm down, and trailed it over Sam's back. 

"Mm. That's nice."

"Do you want me to wash your back?" Olivia asked.

"Mm-hmm," Sam said.

"Will you do mine?"

"Yeah," Sam said. Her voice was low, slurred with impending sleep. "Later..."

Olivia turned her head and kissed Sam's cheek. "Fair enough," she said. She reached for the washcloth and ran it over Sam's shoulder blades. The hard conversation she had come to Sam's quarters to have could wait until they were back in Atlantis.

#

"They told me I would find you here."

Olivia turned and smiled at Sam. "Who is 'they'?"

"Security," Sam said. She left the doorway and walked forward. "May I?"

Olivia gestured at the other side of the bench. "Hey, it's your city."

"I'm just caretaking," Sam said as she sat down.

"Like your husband is house-sitting for you back on Earth."

Sam laughed. "Right." She looked out at the water and let the silence linger for a bit. The spot was gorgeous, which gave her hope that the Lanteans, Ancients, whatever you wanted to call them, weren't entirely emotionless drones. This particular getaway had been flooded when Atlantis touched down on its new home, but a few hours by the maintenance crews and it was good as new. "You come here often?"

Olivia smirked. "Is that a come on?"

Sam smiled. "I finished typing up the briefing. I'll send it to Earth during the next scheduled window. It's in forty-five minutes in case there was something you wanted to send or..."

"I'm fine. But thank you." She moved her hand across the bench and covered Sam's.

"Are you sure?" Sam asked. "You've been kind of distant since we get back."

"Have I? I'm sorry..."

"No, it's fine," Sam said. "I'm not mad. I was just wondering if there was anything you wanted to talk about."

Olivia opened her mouth to deny it, but then shrugged and said, "I don't know."

Sam turned her hand over and said, "You can tell me."

"I don't know if I would call it a problem. It might just be homesickness. I've been through so many changes lately, and I wasn't in the best mental health to begin with." 

Sam nodded and looked out at the water.

"I thought coming here would make things better," Olivia said. "But now I wake up, I go to my office and I shuffle paperwork all day. But when I think about going back to the SVU and facing those... I know that's not what I want either. I know I don't want to leave you. I love you."

"I love you, too," Sam said. "And that's why I want you to be happy. Even if we have to live on different planets and exchange really sexually explicit emails."

Olivia laughed. "Somehow, I don't think that would be the same. All I'm sure about right now is that I don't feel... situated. That if this isn't where I'm supposed to be, then neither is New York, and I don't have any other options. I just need some time to think about it."

"Take all the time you need," Sam said. "Whatever you decide, I'll support you however I can. If I have to let you go, then so be it. I'll even smooth things over with the IOA if you do decide to leave."

"Oh, God," Olivia groaned. "I hadn't even thought about the strings you pulled to get me assigned here..."

"Don't," Sam said. "Don't worry about me. Just do what makes you happy."

Olivia looked at Sam and said, "I really love you. That's one thing I'm absolutely certain of."

"Then we're in agreement of one thing." She leaned in and kissed Olivia. When they parted, Sam said, "I'll leave you alone to think things over."

"You don't have to. We can just... sit."

"I won't be in the way?"

"No," Olivia said. "Never."

Sam crossed her legs and pulled Olivia's hand into her lap. After a few minutes, Olivia looked down at their hands and said, "Sam, thank you."

"For what?"

"For making the decision easy."

Sam looked at her. "So... you've made a decision?" Olivia nodded. Sam promised herself she would be happy no matter what Olivia decided, but knew she was hoping for one answer more than the other. With her heart pounding, her hand suddenly clammy, Sam said, "So? What's it going to be? Earth or Atlantis?"

#

Sam handed the tablet computer to the technician and said, "That should be fine. Check with Zelenka on that energy output, though. I think it could be twenty percent lower."

"Yes, ma'am."

The technician left the office and Sam leaned back in her chair. She had been at her desk for nearly fifteen hours, save for the times she had to go out into the command center to talk with off-world teams. Ever since Olivia had left for New York six weeks ago, Sam had thrown herself into work. She hadn't realized how much she planned her days around Olivia. Dinner, walks on the outskirts of the city, waking up with her... the city seemed utterly desolate without her.

On top of that, there seemed to be a new illness spreading through the Pegasus galaxy. She had a meeting scheduled with Dr. Keller in the infirmary for 1900, but at last count there were three worlds affected that they knew about. She exhaled, looked over her desk for something else to fill up her hours, and finally settled on the solitaire game loaded onto her computer. _If it was good enough for Elizabeth..._ she thought as she started a new game.

She was halfway through the game when Chuck came to the door. "Colonel Carter?"

"Yes, Chuck."

"You wanted me to inform you when the _Daedalus_ arrived. They've been cleared for docking on the west pier."

Sam was out of her seat before Chuck was finished speaking. "West pier?" Sam confirmed.

"Yes, ma'am."

"Thank you, Chuck." She hurried across the catwalk, through the command center to the nearest transport. She flashed back to far too many years ago, a little girl in overalls jumping up from her building blocks to greet her Daddy at the front door. She didn't care how ridiculous she looked; she wanted to be there as soon as the _Daedalus_ touched down. 

She calmed herself in the elevator, straightening her jacket as she stepped outside. The wind on the pier was weak, but it still picked up her ponytail and trailed it out behind her like the tail of a kite. She watched as the massive ship angled around and eased itself into position. She smiled and took a deep breath as she waited for the passengers to arrive.

"Welcome back," she said to the first group. Airmen, soldiers, and scientists who had been trapped on Earth when Midway was destroyed looked relieved to finally be home. _We barely had that station operational, and we were already used to it. Now we have to get used to Caldwell's International Space Taxi again._

She was so caught up in her thoughts that she missed Olivia leaving the ship. She spotted the familiar wave of brown hair caught by the wind and widened her smile. She stepped forward, resisting the urge to run, and met Olivia halfway. "Hi. Welcome back to Atlantis, Constable Benson."

"Thank you, Colonel Carter." Olivia took the strap of her duffel bag off her shoulder and held it out. "Would you like to help me carry some of this?"

"Sure," Sam said. She looped the strap over her head and rested the bag against her side. She bent down and picked up two of the suitcases by Olivia's feet and grunted. "God. What do you have in here?"

"The remnants of my life on Earth," Olivia said. She had decided that Atlantis was where she belonged, and her homesickness was due to trying to keep one foot in both worlds. So she had returned to Earth to tie up her remaining loose ends and free herself to live fully in her new life. Sam had arranged clearance for Stabler, Cragen and the rest of the SVU team so Olivia could reveal just exactly where she was and what she was doing. She had been preparing to come home when the Wraith attack had forced Midway's destruction and she was stuck returning on the _Daedalus_.

Sam, who had been planning for Olivia to come back in four weeks, found the extra two weeks unbearable. But now Olivia was here. Olivia was home.

"Did everything go all right?"

"Munch was a little difficult to convince. And Elliot wanted to admit me for psychological tests."

"'I'm working on Atlantis fighting aliens,'" Sam said. "What's crazy about that?"

Olivia grinned. "In the end, the Air Force documents you declassified for them managed to seal the deal. I have their blessing."

"Good," Sam said. "Do, um... you need... any help unpacking?"

"No," Olivia said. 

"Oh."

Olivia fought to contain her smile and then said, "That doesn't mean you can't blow off work and help me anyway."

Sam smiled and followed Olivia back inside the city.

#

Sam rolled off of Olivia with a satisfied sigh. Olivia exhaled, pushed the hair out of her eyes and said, "Wow. So. Six weeks of pent-up frustration..."

"Six weeks and three days," Sam said, swallowing hard and trying to catch her breath. "We missed our planned good-bye party because of the... well, the actual good-bye party."

Olivia chuckled and rolled onto her side. She kissed the swell of Sam's breast and then lifted her head to kiss Sam's lips. "Thank you for helping me unpack."

"Thank you for letting me try that thing in the shower."

"Yeah, well," Olivia said. She rested her head on Sam's shoulder. "Do you have anywhere you need to be?"

Sam checked the clock on the nightstand. "1900 meeting with Keller."

"How long do we have?"

Sam nudged her. "Lift your head and look, lazy."

"Don't want to," Olivia said.

Sam sighed. "We have time."

"Good." She kissed Sam's chest and scooted closer. "Do you want to try round five? Or should we nap?"

"Nap," Sam said. "Then round five, then I have to be responsible and go to work."

"Sounds like a plan," Olivia said, already feeling her eyelids drooping. "Move onto your side, please?" Sam did as she asked and Olivia spooned her from behind. She looped her arms around Sam's waist and kissed the back of her neck. "I'll wake you at 1730."

"Okay," Sam whispered. She was already dropping off as well. 

Olivia rested her cheek against Sam's shoulder and closed her eyes. All the planning, all the mental debates with herself, and the simple fact had been Sam. Sam was here, this was where Olivia needed to be. If she had to work to make it feel like home, then so be it. Very little in life was easy, and nothing worth having came without some kind of fight. She held Sam, aware that Sam was already fast asleep in her arms, and looked out the window. It was still daylight, early afternoon, and the sun was reflecting off the waves. 

For better or for worse, this was her home. She kissed Sam's shoulder again and Sam murmured, "Sleeping..."

"Sorry, hon," Olivia said. She raised her hand and brushed Sam's hair away from her shoulder. She closed her eyes and settled against Sam's back.

For now, this was close enough to home to set her mind at ease.


End file.
